Honeypenny seems to think that the best openings for the month already happened at Bambi and Fleisher-Ollman last night but since we’re not in the habit over here at Philebrity of making you feel bad about your poor social navigation she’s suggested some things this weekend and this month to make you feel all Autumn Sweater about it.

Inside: metatrees, bearded brides, cemetary love and more. Tonz-o-Honz gets into it after the jump.

¬? The New Meta-Nature Taking Over: Metasequoia At The Morris Arboretum
Nestled within the dawn redwood grove at the Morris Arboretum a new sculpture exhibit, meta Metasequoia, invites visitors 12 feet up into the tree canopy of these majestic trees to get a little closer to mama nature in one of the most post-modern tree houses we’ve ever seen. Admission is free to the Arboretum so go get high towards the end of the month when the foliage starts to change from a fresh conifer green to a foxy red sienna and enjoy the, um, view. Try not to get freaked out by the narrative sound auditory component that’s supposed to be a dialogue of botanical insights between a tree and a bird. We’re not sure what kind of fourth wall that’s supposed to provide, but go ahead and try to break on through it anyway.

¬? The Bearded Bride Stripped Bare: Infestation At The Painted Bride
Ok, so the beard, ‘stach, handle-bar thing isn’t going away. In fact it’s that time of year when they start getting more unruly and ubiquitous but Talia Greene’s work on view for another week at the Painted Bride really takes it to the next gross out level. Infestation consists of 16 prints depicting the shapes of men’s facial hairstyles taken from Victorian typology but composed entirely of dead fruit flies. Refined but inquiring minds want to know… does Lord Whimsy know about this?

¬? Sinners, Scandals and Suicides: Before It Was Murderdelphia
This Sunday at 2pm Ross Mitchell, Director of the Laurel Hill Cemetary (and oddly enough a former employee of The Barnes Foundation) invites you to a private tour of historic Laurel Hill Cemetery or as they’re referring to it these days The Underground Museum. The tour highlights some of the cities most infamous dead and the gossip behind their demise. Go pay your respects… we have it on good authority that he knows some seriously sordid ghost stories.

¬? Final Judge and Jury: You Can‚Äôt Take it With You
And while you’re thinking of the afterlife go visit The Ice Box over at the Crane Building (a dead joke for a galley called The Ice Box seems a no-brainer here, but we’re above that since this is serious!) The juried international exhibition Ashes to Art produced by Northern California-based arts agency FUNERIA focuses exclusively on original, contemporary, fine art and fine craft urns, vessels, and reliquaries. Yeah. Pine boxes are out! Cremated remains in collectible colors are in! We’re not sure if they’re for sale, but if you’re desperate for one we imagine they couldn’t be any more expensive than getting the cash together for your first last and security.

¬? And Now On A Less Macabre Note: It‚Äôs Always Sunny at Locks Gallery
Opening tonight, 15 new paintings by Jennifer Bartlett, which includes large scale candy colored hand painted steel plates containing sunny imagery under short phrases of the artist’s internal monologue, a droll commentary on the context and circumstance of her subjects. Thank god they‚Äôre so happily colored otherwise we‚Äôd be bored to tears with the cool distant conceptualism. Shiny happy dot dot dash paintings!

This entry was posted on Friday, October 6th, 2006 at 3:45 pm.