CLARK HALL SHOWCASES “LENIN BUSTED”  
      HAMMOND -- Southeastern Louisiana University’s Clark Hall Gallery will host an exhibit of 52 local artists, who have each interpreted the same subject matter -- a plaster bust of Vladimir Illich Lenin, the revolutionary who brought communist rule to Russia in 1917.
 Opening with a reception from 4-6 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 28, “LENIN BUSTed” will be on display through Sept. 25. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., weekdays. The traveling exhibit is from Barrister's Gallery in New Orleans. 
     Also from Aug. 28-Sept. 25, Sims Memorial Library will feature “Save America's Treasurers: A Photographic History of the Lower St. Charles Corridor,” an exhibition from the Felicity Street Redevelopment Corporation in New Orleans . 
      LENIN BUSTed was the brainchild of art impresario Andy Antippas, who acquired a bust of the dictator and had plaster replicas made to see what artists might do with them. Local artists rose to the challenge of turning an icon of collectivism into an object of individual expression. Most of their variations are as zany as Lenin himself was severe. 
      Artistically “messing with Lenin’s head,” artists have, among other things, adorned the Communist icon with Mickey Mouse ears, placed him in a red plastic bumper car along with American flag-waving Mickey, Minnie and Donald Duck; turned his head into a red, white and blue piggy bank and an eight ball; and have written script on his face.
      “Gambit” reviewer D. Eric Bookhardt said the exhibit expresses, “an art community's judgement on censors, dictators and control freaks of all stripes.”
      For additional information on the exhibits, contact Southeastern Visual Arts, 985-549-2193.