UNLESS YOU'RE MINNIE Pearl, a dangling price tag is usually a disposable item – something to clip off and throw away. For Francis Baker, however, price tags serve as the building blocks of his latest series of artworks, as seen in "Other Attachments, an Investigation into My Consumption." He personalizes the tags with "Kiss me," "Buy me," "Pick me," and dozens of other handwritten requests, beseeching viewers for love and money. Baker says the tags symbolize consumption and its accompanying implications: desires rewarded, needs fulfilled. It's almost impossible to address a topic of this magnitude – indeed, you might argue that our entire contemporary society is based on consumerism – without biting off more than one can chew. It's also tough to bring it up without the fundamental assumption that it's a bad thing, or at least a necessary evil. But Baker prevents his work from being either overly ambitious or overly reductive. He manages the former by focusing on a single symbol – the tag – and its possibilities as an aesthetic object. Hand-painted and drawn, they are genuinely beautiful art materials, and like used tea bags, they acquire individuality and personality through manual "processing." Attached to a canvas and situated in a retail gallery, the tags clearly comment on the art business as a business. Desire Hangs upon Me, for example, is a lovely female nude – a ubiquitous subject throughout art history – with a backbone of price tags. Baker's obvious willingness to participate in the gallery system, however, suggests he has some ambivalence about the art business being such a bad thing (and 66 Balmy is definitely an artist-friendly gallery). Are you lonely and longing for a personal connection? Feeling helpless and ineffectual? Perhaps, Baker suggests with an ironic smile, buying one of his canvases may be just the thing. Wed.-Sun., 1-6 p.m. (reception Fri/13, 7-10 p.m.), 591 Guerrero, S.F. (415) 522-0502. (Lindsey Westbrook)