SAT 10/30
Chris Fitzpatrick
Looky-loos at a previous OnSix show,
"Swindle."
Kim Weller
Deconstructing art at "Notorious!"
Even Bat Makumba can't stop dancing.
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Halloween just wouldn't seem right without a catalog of our darkest misdeeds. Thankfully, the OnSix Gallery puts depravity back where it belongs with its latest group show, "The Seven Deadly Sins." A cadre of local artists comment cheekily on pride, envy, greed, wrath, sloth, lust, and gluttony, producing conceptions of evil that are worthy of Chaucer (or at least Dante). The exhibit also boasts sculptures by Lucien Shapiro, whose oversize toys amp up the creepiness factor.
The opening party is a nod to the gallery's gritty Sixth Street location, where the basement level will be remade into a "haunted crack house," complete with performers promising all manner of temptation and debauchery, an open bar, and beats from DJ Cliff Huxtable. Dave Edwardson (bass guitarist of Oakland's political underground group Neurosis) and Chris Fitzpatrick (of the sound-artist collective Noisegate) also provide musical atmosphere with their eerie soundscapes -- just the thing for strolling among visions of hell. Come feel the love at 9 p.m. (the exhibit continues through Nov. 20) at the OnSix Gallery at Club Six, 60 Sixth St. (at Jessie), S.F. Admission is $5; call 863-1221 or visit www.onsixgallery.com.
-- Nirmala Nataraj
Shockumentary
Dissecting the mondo genre
SAT 10/30
The word "mondo" alone evokes home-video nasties like Faces of Death, but the very first mondo movie, 1962's Mondo Cane(translated from Italian as A Dog's World), was more of a pointed documentary than an exploitation flick. Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi's film was a huge, controversial hit, but audiences that actually saw the "shocking" footage didn't know what to think about juxtaposed images of American pet owners burying their deceased pups in high style while Taiwanese tribespeople prepared pooches for a mealtime main dish. Of course, such a popular picture gave birth to a score of seamy imitators, even as Jacopetti and Prosperi went on to make more docs, most of which continued to draw uncomfortable parallels between the decadent rich and the desperate poor. Delve into the auteurs' lives and the genre they created with Godfathers of Mondo, a feature-length documentary screening at 8:30 p.m. at Artists' Television Access, 992 Valencia (at 21st Street), S.F. Admission is $5; call 824-3890 or visit www.atasite.org.
-- Joyce Slaton
No No Notorious
Creamy, cheesy Nagel
FRI-SUN 10/29-31
We understand the craze for 1980s nostalgia, but some things from the Reagan era should never be revived: Feathered hair, we hope, is gone for good. Proving that almost everything bad can be made good again, however, is the exhibition "Notorious!: A Tribute to Patrick Nagel." Although the graphic artist's images of women with scary hair, giant Ray-Bans, and truly vacant stares traumatized us in our youth, we recognize their high camp value. The show's artists tend to the young, screamingly irreverent, and ridiculously creative, so it's unlikely they'll be taking those pastels too seriously.
The opening reception starts at 8 p.m. on Friday at Build, 483 Guerrero (at 17th Street), S.F. Admission is free; call 863-3041.
-- Hiya Swanhuyser
Shake That Thing
FRI 10/29
If you can keep still while listening to Brazilian music, you're probably dead. The irresistible beats emanating from Brazilian-style Halloween party "Carnalween" are courtesy of Bat Makumba, Nobody From Ipanema, and SambaDa, three bands that'll persuade you to shake the junk in your trunk with their delirious cross-pollinations of samba, funk, bossa nova, and Latin rhythms at 9 p.m. at the Independent, 628 Divisadero (at Hayes), S.F. Admission is $13-15; call 771-1421 or visit www.independentsf.com.
-- Joyce Slaton
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