John Walter
CAPSID
2018
HOME, Manchester
Curator | exhibition
Assistant Director & Producer | A Virus Walks Into A Bar
Writer | alongside John Walter, Professor Greg Towers, Jonathan P.Watts and Judith Carlton of the accompanying book
Commissioned by CGP London and HOME, Manchester
Supported by a Large Arts Award from Wellcome and Arts Council England Grants for the Arts
All copyright John Walter
Installation images by Lee Baxter
Presenting a compelling, sometimes riotous and often surreal world, CAPSID is the result of collaboration between London-based, British artist John Walter and molecular virologist Professor Greg Towers of University College London.
This major exhibition addressed a crisis of representation surrounding viruses such as HIV, by bringing new scientific knowledge about viral capsids to the attention of the wider public using methods and references pulled from a maelstrom of popular culture; from the cartoon antics of Adventure Time to Vegas hotel carpet design.
HOME Artist Film commission, A Virus Walks Into A Bar, charts the journey of a Capsid, or protein shell contained within viruses, that help protect and deliver viruses to host cells during infection. It playfully subverts the central hub of the pub within UK soap operas as a substitute for a human cell, with the barmaid as the nucleus.
Related programming included film screenings, discussion, live performance, a baby rave and the first UK Flash Collective with Avram Finkelstein, founding member of the Silence=Death and Gran Fury collectives within the ACT UP New York movement.
