A young British artist named Marcus Harvey created an art piece in 1995 of a serial killer, Myra Hindley. The art piece gained attention due to the fact that the artwork was a mugshot of Hindley after murdering five children and sexually assaulting them with her boyfriend at the time. The art piece is also controversial because of how it is made out of many child handprints, some artists argue that it is freedom of expression, while others say it is “disgusting and perverted.”
When the art piece was first put up in the exhibit, ink was thrown at it along with the members of Mothers Against Murder and Aggression near the entrance warning people about the artwork. This type of reaction due to an art exhibit piece demonstrates that the public found the work offensive and inconsiderate, especially to the families affected by the murders Hindley committed. Some individuals said that the reactions were dramatic, while others stated that the goal of the artwork was to bring awareness to the violence and how extreme Myra Hindley’s crime was. Others also mentioned that it was glorifying violence in addition to sending an inappropriate message due to the children’s handprints that were made to create the artwork.
