Fridae

A basketball covered in rhinestones, jewellery and hair is among the objects in Jethro Patalinghug’s portfolio. So are jewelled sculptural heads and portraits of drag performers. For their San Francisco exhibition Manghihilot, the Filipino immigrant and nonbinary artist brings drag into a room-spanning installation.

The show at 465 Collective has one more listed afternoon of gallery hours, on 31 October. Organiser Queerly Complex describes a tentacled drag “virus” made with sequins, synthetic hair, stockings, corsetry, light and projection. Five life-sized sculptures draw on the Babaylan, spiritual and cultural leaders in the precolonial Philippines. A video tribute honours Filipino drag performers.

Manghihilot is a traditional healer. The programme uses that figure to explain the exhibition’s themes of care, queer identity and Filipino cultural memory.

Patalinghug explored Manghihilot at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore in 2024. Their portfolio describes a central corset and coloured light in that installation.

The San Francisco gallery session runs from 4pm to 6pm on Saturday 31 October. The closing event follows, from 6pm to 9pm, at 465 South Van Ness Avenue. All times are San Francisco local time.