ART

Artists Protest Helms: Artists Charles Sherman and Cheri Gaulke team up today for a free election-eve performance piece answering the question to Sherman’s controversial billboard campaign, “Who’s Burning America?,” which points to the tobacco industry and its support from Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.). Helms is in a close race for re-election with Democrat Harvey Gantt, an architect and former mayor of Charlotte. Gaulke portrays Helms in the three-minute piece, which will be performed at 10 a.m. at the front entrance of the County Museum of Art. The performance concludes when the Helms character torches a painting of the American flag with an oversized cigarette. A new Sherman billboard, urging a stop to tax subsidies for the tobacco industry, will then be revealed on the side of a truck at the museum.