Scandinavian Artist Causes Major Stir Dressing Up Daughter As Hitler To Explore The Meaning Of Evil

Where does one cross the line, when it comes to art? Do you write about or paint or photograph something tremendously distateful to make a point, even when you face the prospect of offending someone? I have always been a defender of freedom of speech, so although I might find something offensive, I will defend your right to do it, but I will also defend my right to criticize the work.

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Apparently Nina Maria Kleivan, a Scandinavian artist/photographer, has caused quite a stir with a series of photos she took of her baby daughter Faustina in 2000, when she was several months old. She was inspired to create "Potency" a photo montage of evil while she was bedridden for months from complications after giving birth. Since she couldn't physically work in her studio, she started sewing outfits for her baby. Uniforms of some of the most evil men in history, starting with Joseph Stalin and ending with Adolf Hitler. The others included:

Benito Mussolini, Saddam Hussein, Ayatollah Khomeini, Chairman Mao, Idi Amin, Augusto Pinochet, Slobodan Milosevic.

It wasn't easy for her, and her husband took particular umbrage with Hitler; but she had a point to prove:

We all begin life the same. We all have every opportunity ahead of us. To do good, or inexplicable evil.

"We all have evil within us. Even small children are evil towards each other," Danish-Norwegian artist Nina Maria Kleivan tells Haaretz as she explains why she chose to dress up her baby daughter as the most evil historical figures of the 20th century.

"Even my daughter could end up ruling Denmark with an iron fist. The possibility is still there. You never know."

Jewish groups have been highly critical of what they call a stunt, and the reviews have been understandbly mixed. Is it right to dress up a child as evil incarnate to prove a point? She's right about the fact that evil exists and can exist even in the youngest of children. We read stories about children viciously murdering other young children, but is there a better way of depicting that?

What's interesting is that her father, was part of the Norwegian resistance and had been held in a German prison camp, and as a result she grew up hating the Germans:

"I grew up with a tremendous hatred towards the Germans," Kleivan says, reminiscing about how she would, as a child, carry a note in her pocket with the name of her father's prison guard, so that when the day came, she could identify him and kill him. "Even though my father stressed that you shouldn't hate anyone, not least the Germans. Hatred is a dead end."

Most of the criticism is for the Hitler photo, since the majority of humanity (other than Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and, sadly, many others) view him as probably the most evil man to have lived on God's great earth.

I'm not quite sure what I think of her project. Had she not had a point to prove I would have found it terribly offensive. But I do agree with many of her points:

"You need to be conscious that your actions have consequences that impact on your fellow human beings. The people I let my daughter portray didn't give a damn about the human cost, the casualties, their thoughts caused," Kleivan says.

"The responsibility is yours alone. You can't throw it away - as a parent, as human beings - and say that you just followed orders."

I just think she could have found a better way of getting her point across.