Artist Mom Dresses Baby as Hitler

(CANVAS STAFF REPORTS) - There are plenty of good reasons why parents rarely name their children Adolf or Judas.

So why would a parent dress her youngster up like Adolf Hitler?

Art.

Danish-Norwegian artist Nina Maria Kleivan has dressed her baby daughter like Hitler and other 20th century dictators, including Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini and Saddam Hussein, reports the Haaretz newspaper in Israel..

"We all have evil within us. Even small children are evil towards each other," Kleivan tells Haaretz , explaining why she chose to make her then months-old daughter, Faustina, depict some of history's most evil figures.

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

Kleivan's photo-series, "Potency," is aimed at illustrating a core belief that everyone begins life the same and can do good or inexplicable evil, Haaretz reports .

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

The exhibit has been shown in Denmark, Sweden, Italy and Germany. Reactions have not been unexpected.

You can see images of Kleivan's work at her Web site .

Her daughter is now 11. When she was first putting the exhibit together, Kleivan's husband didn't react well when he saw a swastika armband lying on a desk, she says.

"‘I'm aware that you're an artist, but this is wrong,' he told me," Kleivan says. "I've pondered that a lot myself: Could I really do this? I agree it's on the verge, especially Hitler, whom I and most others view as the incarnation of evil. He and Stalin were the hardest to do. It hurt."

Hitler being linked with children grabbed headlines in 2008 when a New Jersey supermarket denied the father of 3-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell a birthday cake with the child's full name on it.