BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.4.7//EN TZID:Europe/London X-WR-TIMEZONE:Europe/London BEGIN:VEVENT UID:325@artinliverpool.com DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20151029T100000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20151029T100000 DTSTAMP:20151011T094047Z URL:https://www.artinliverpool.com/events/walker-pug-virus-by-john-walter/ SUMMARY:Walker Art Gallery: Walker: Pug Virus by John Walter DESCRIPTION:John Walter's sculpture at Walker Art Gallery and Alien Sex Clu b exhibition at Camp &\; Furnace as part of Homotopia Festival.\n\nPu g Virus\nThursday 29 October – 31 January 2016\nUpper Atrium\, Walker Ar t Gallery\nDaily\, 10.00 - 17.00\, FREE entry\n\nAlien Sex Club (more deta ils here)\nFriday 30 October – 29 November 2015\nCamp &\; Furnace\, G reenland Street\, L1 0BY\nFridays 12.00 - 20.00\, Saturdays and Sundays 12 .00 - 18.00\n\nAlien Sex Club is a major multimedia project by British Art ist John Walter. It explores the relationship between visual culture and H IV and asks audiences to consider sexual transmission risk in a broader pe rsonal and social framework.\n\nUsing the spatial device of a cruise maze found in sex clubs and gay saunas\, the Alien Sex Club installation at Cam p &\; Furnace brings together sculpture\, painting\, video\, performanc e and installation to address the complexities of contemporary sexual heal th. Visitors are immersed in a multisensory world where they are free to a dventure\, have their fortunes read by the tarot reader or share conversat ions over a drink at the gin bar.\n\nThrough the aesthetic of carnival and festivals Alien Sex Club introduces serious issues to a wide audience in an accessible\, playful and provocative way. The project is part of John W alter’s PhD research and is the result of a collaboration with Dr Alison Rodger\, Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Infectious Diseases a nd HIV at University College London supported by a Small Arts Award by the Wellcome Trust.\n\nContinuing Homotopia’s long-standing partnership wit h National Museums Liverpool\, throughout the festival John Walter’s inf latable sculpture ‘Pug Virus’ will be exhibited at the Walker Art Gall ery. The four metre-high inflatable head is sewn in pink ripstop nylon and is based on one of a series of 3D printed ‘virus heads’ that Walter h as made. ‘Pug Virus’ is Walter’s attempt to re-envision HIV in our c urrent era of highly effective antiretroviral therapy\, in contrast to rep resentations of the virus during the 'AIDS' crisis in the 1980s. It fills the elegant space of the neo-classical Walker Art Gallery in a bold and un compromising way. Visitors will then be signposted to the full exhibition at Camp &\; Furnace.\n\nAlso as part of Homotopia\, at the Bluecoat\, W alker Art Gallery and at Camp &\; Furnace\, Alien Sex Club will present a free public programme of associated talks and events from artists\, act ivists and health professionals aimed at providing audiences with a new vo cabulary for understanding and talking about HIV and the factors contribut ing to its transmission.\n\nFriday 30 October\, 6pm\, The Bluecoat - Artis t John Walter talks about Alien Sex Club.\n\nSat 7 November\, 2pm\, The Bl uecoat - Artist Frances Disley demystifies the jargon\, statistics and mod es of dissemination associated with HIV and visual arts in collaboration w ith Dr Valerie Delpech.\n\nSaturday 14th November\, 2pm\, Bluecoat - Artis t Mark Scott-Wood creates new work for an event exploring props\, tools\, habits and rituals associated with HIV in collaboration with HIV nurse Jan ey Sewell.\n\nSat 21 Nov\, 4pm\, Camp &\; Furnace - A collaborative pre sentation using good old words and pictures from performance artist Susann ah Hewlett and clinical epidemiologist Professor Sheena McCormack.\n\nTues 1 December -World Aids Day - 11 – 5pm\, Tarot Readings by Barbara Truva da\, Walker Art Gallery. The Alien Sex Club tarot deck gathers together im ages that allow reader and visitor to discuss subjects including sexuality and cultural transmission. Walter's set contains 78 cards\, with a Higher Arcana of 22 picture cards and four suits – the Bugchasers\, the Giftgi vers\, the Barebackers and the Serosorters - which draw on the mythology o f HIV. The tarot reader's name refers to Truvada® the brand name of a typ e of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP).\n\nwww.aliensexclub.com\n\nliverpool museums.org.uk/pugvirus\n\nBackground and context for the project\n\nDurin g the early AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s\, many public sex environme nts (often including cruise mazes) were closed by law. More recently\, cru ising for sex has moved online with apps such as Grindr\, Scruff and Horne t gaining in popularity. However\, many men still want to meet in person a nd anonymously for sex\, despite the risks involved.\n\nGay men remain one of the groups most at risk of HIV in the UK\, with 3\,250 new cases of th e infection diagnosed in this group in 2013. Anti‐retroviral therapy (AR T) helps HIV‐positive patients stay healthy with near normal life expect ancy but the long‐term physical effects of ART are still unknown and its long‐term cost is of increasing concern. It is estimated that ART costs around £500\,000 per person for a lifetime of treatment.\n\nPopular deba te around the medical and social implications of ART and HIV in this count ry is set to increase in the next year\, as pre‐exposure prophylaxis (Pr EP) and self‐testing for HIV will become more available in the UK\, chan ging how people think about risk and unprotected sex. ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.artinliverpool.com/wp-content/upload s/2015/10/walker-pug-virus.jpg LOCATION:Walker Art Gallery\, William Brown Street\, Liverpool\, L3 8EL\, L iverpool\, United Kingdom GEO:53.409412;-2.980352 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=William Brown Street\, Live rpool\, L3 8EL\, Liverpool\, United Kingdom;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Wal ker Art Gallery:geo:53.409412,-2.980352 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/London BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20151025T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR