Finnish artist convicted for artwork criticizing child porn
Last Updated: Thursday, May 22, 2008 | 3:46 PM ET
CBC News
A Finnish artist and scholar is planning to launch an appeal after a Helsinki court convicted her on child pornography charges but declined to assign any punishment.
On Wednesday, the Helsinki District Court found Ulla Karttunen guilty of possessing and distributing child pornography in relation to controversial artwork that the 52-year-old created in order to criticize erotic images of children she discovered online.
The court called the crime "a forgivable act" and said it would be "unreasonable to impose a punishment, as the defendant has had the same goal as the lawmakers" in wanting to eliminate child pornography, according to Agence France-Presse.
However, Karttunen told Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat that she felt the ambiguous decision would make her seem even more culpable to the public, since she has been convicted but not punished. She also questioned why this material is so easily found online and why, instead of acting to remove it, the authorities instead pursued her for shining a light on the issue.
Complaint prompted police action
In mid-February, Karttunen's work was featured at an exhibit at Helsinki's Kluuvi Gallery. Officers confiscated the piece Neitsythuorakirkko (Virgin-Whore-Church), however, after receiving receiving a complaint about it.
Officials also later seized a host of other material belonging to Karttunen — including her computer — as well as brochures advertising the exhibition.
Karttunen has repeatedly said the goal of her artwork was to shine a spotlight on how easily accessible pornographic images of children are on free websites advertising adult entertainment — something she was horrified to discover while researching culture and eroticism online for her doctoral thesis. The gallery had also included text explicitly detailing Karttunen's criticism of child pornography alongside the confiscated artwork.
In Helsinki in November, similar complaints arose over an exhibit of work by U.S. photographer Sally Mann, who has sometimes drawn criticism for her choice of subject matter, which includes nude (or partially nude) children as well as dead bodies. However, in the case of Mann's photos, police officers left the artwork on display at a Helsinki gallery while they conducted their investigation.
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