MANCHESTER.- HOME presents CAPSID, a major solo exhibition by John Walter.

CAPSID is the latest multi-media maximalist installation by London-based British artist John Walter. Presenting a compelling, sometimes riotous and often surreal world, CAPSID is the result of collaboration between Walter and molecular virologist Professor Greg Towers of University College London.

Taking the HIV capsid as the starting point of his research, Walter expanded his examination within a broader context of virology. Capsids are the protein shells of a virus, which act to protect, cloak and deliver the virus to its host. CAPSID addresses a crisis of representation surrounding viruses, and presents a new way of viewing and understanding HIV based on the best current scientific knowledge.

This major exhibition develops Walter’s ongoing fascination with the representation of viruses in the visual arts. It addresses viruses as a way of understanding identity and the transmission of culture and ideals – that identity, culture and ideas do not belong to someone as such but that they inhabit the person / group (e.g. fans of a particular football team) and are passed on like viruses.

CAPSID builds on central themes of Walter’s practice including biology, hospitality and Shonky aesthetics, and follows Walter’s 2015 exhibition Alien Sex Club.

Combining a large body of work, ranging from paintings, drawings, prints, to sculptures, sound and video installations, Walter brings together imagery, language and symbols from children’s television and pharmaceutical industry to LGBT culture, science and art history.

The exhibition also features the new HOME Artist Film commission, A Virus Walks Into A Bar, charting the journey of a Capsid, or protein shell contained within viruses, that help protect and deliver viruses to host cells during infection. But imagine if this took place in the Queen Vic from EastEnders, standing in for a cell under attack, with a bunch of angry locals as the immune system.

A programme of related activity will include film screenings, discussions, live performance 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.

CAPSID is supported by a Large Arts Award from Wellcome and Arts Council England Grants for the Arts. The exhibition is accompanied by a new HOME publication, CAPSID.

CAPSID is curated by Bren O’Callaghan, co-commissioned by CGP London and HOME Manchester and supported by a Large Arts Award from Wellcome and Arts Council England Grants for the Arts.