An exhibition inspired by gay cruising saunas and sex clubs that were closed by law during the AIDS crisis in the 80s and 90s will launch in Hull this month.
British artist John Walter will transform Artlink’s gallery space into a multi-media, multi-sensory and immersive show, exploring the relationship between visual culture and HIV today.
Alien Sex Capsule is a capsule version of Walter’s 2015 exhibition Alien Sex Club, which was previously exhibited at Ambika P3 in London and at Homotopia festival in Liverpool.
The project invokes the idea of the cruise maze – a structure commonly found in sex clubs and gay saunas that may encourage sexual risk – as a leitmotif for organising a range of artworks that update the representation of HIV in our current era of HIV-prevention drug PrEP.
Using the maze as a directive mechanism Walter guides the viewer through a carnival like space filled with painting, sculptural and video pieces converging conversation and research on the complex subject of contemporary sexual health today. Walter engages audiences in sensitive issues using tragicomic humour and visual excess.
The exhibition is part of Square Peg, a diversity and disability arts programme funded by Hull UK City of Culture 2017. It follows on from LGBT 50, a week-long celebration of LGBT+ culture across the arts, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act 1967 that decriminalised homosexual acts in private between two men in England and Wales.
Martin Green, Director of Hull 2017, said: “On the back of our hugely successful LGBT 50 festival, we are delighted to welcome John Walters’ Alien Sex Capsule to the city. The interactive exhibition uses colour and humour to tackle the hugely important, but sometimes uncomfortable subject of sexual health and open the topic up to discussion among a wide audience.”
Alien Sex Club was supported by a Small Arts Award from the Wellcome Trust for Walter’s collaboration with Dr Alison Rodger, Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Infectious Diseases and HIV at University College London and Arts Council England Grants for the Arts.
