You’d think an exhibition with “apocalypse” in its title might include artworks that strike fear and engender contemplation in the hearts of us sinful viewers. Yet my only emotional response to the current exhibition Songs of the Apocalypse at Art Mûr (5826 St-Hubert) was a big laugh.

Call me twisted, but a guy nonchalantly walking down the street smoking a butt with an axe sticking out of his head is somehow very humorous to me. The fact that the video Extreme Metal Drumming was in the show also made me grin.

This exhibition, curated by David Liss (director/curator of the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto), is supposed to let us Quebecers experience some of what Toronto’s galleries are showing, with a few Montrealers thrown in for good measure.

Personally, the biggest surprise was seeing that Christopher Cutts Gallery, what I formerly thought of as a bastion of abstract and colour field paintings in the ’90s, now represents artists like Ixone Sadaba, the creator of the aforementioned axe photograph. Now that’s shocking. Worth strolling through with Halloween around the corner, just don’t expect any revelations. Runs until Nov. 3, info: (514) 933-0711.

by CHRISTINE REDFERN

Stories, rhythms and slams

Mirror Noisemakers Taqralik Partridge and Alessandra Naccarato are both bending Montrealers’ ears this week. As part of the Quebec Intercultural Storytelling Festival, Partridge delivers urban Inuit rhythms at McGill’s Thomson House Ballroom (3650 McTavish) at a free show tonight, Oct. 25 at 7:30 p.m., along with storyteller Louise Profeit-Leblanc of the Nacho N’Yak Dun First Nation in Yukon territory.

Tomorrow, Oct. 26, Lip zine editor Naccarato and her co-conspirator, slam producer/poet Michelle Dabrowski, are presenting Slam for Solidarity, a benefit event for ABANTU, a women’s rights organization in Ghana. Naccarato’s going to be sharing her desktop publishing skills with them this winter.

“We kind of put our heads together with the means that existed, and our interest in performing poetry, and decided to do the slam together in solidarity with the project I’m going to do in Ghana,” Naccarato says. At Apathy Is Boring (10 des Pins W., #412), sign-up at 8 p.m., for $7.

by VINCENT TINGUELY

Oriental dance and
fashion fest

This weekend, another festival is being added to the city’s ever-expanding list. Keep an eye out for the first Festival de danse orientale, which aims to boost the visibility of oriental dance in the province.

Martine Wérotte, belly dancer and president of l’Association québécoise de danse orientale, which consists of professional dancers and musicians, says the festival is a way for people to get together and share the dance. Highlights of the event include a dance competition and Saturday’s (Oct. 27) gala performance, which welcomes over 70 performers from near and abroad and features Tito, a unique headlining act.

“Tito is quite unusual,” explains Wérotte. “He’s a male belly dancer from Egypt and he dances on a tabla with a shisha, a water pipe, on his head.”

Apart from dance, there’s a fashion show and bazaar that’s all happening Oct. 26–28 at the Palais des Congrès de Montréal (1001, Place Jean-Paul-Riopelle). For info and ticket reservations: www.aqdo.ca.

by MARITES CARINO

Is it art?

Wiggin’ out: A good way to turn heads this Halloween is to crown your baby with a full head of hair. And the selection of baby wigs from Baby Toupee can help you do just that.

Founded by four friends in Burbank, California, the company’s credo is to make “small wigs for small people,” not for medical reasons but simply because it’s funny. In fact, their press release is unabashed about the trials of parenting being at once a “major responsibility” and a “source of endless amusement.”

With four models to choose from, The Donald, The Bob (Marley), The Lil’ Kim and the Samuel L. (“You know what you call a baby wig in Paris? Le Baby Toupee”) parents can pick a style that best suits their zero–nine-month-old’s personality.

The company isn’t all shitty diapers and giggles, as they donate 10 per cent of all proceeds to children’s charities. www.babytoupee.com.

Arts hole

WAR STORIES: 30 photographers from all over the world will be exhibiting at the Emporium Gallery (3035 St-Anotine) this weekend (Oct. 26–28) as part of Heavy Metal in Baghdad, in support of Iraqi Band Acrassicauda. Profits from the sale of prints will be donated to the band; the vernissage is Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. Mo’ Munny: Off the Hook (1021 Ste-Catherine W.) is turning into a gallery once again on Friday, Oct. 26 at 8 p.m., this time for The Munny Show. The first of its kind in Montreal, the show features Munnies— white, vinyl DIY figurines you can colour, cut or singe—customized by local artists and fans alike.

Artistat

The suggested age of visitors heading to the Labyrinth at Shed 16 in the Old Port this weekend Oct. 27–28 flashlights in hand, to experience their Extreme Halloween fright nights: 16+