For further information contact: Svetlana Mintcheva at 212-807-6222 ext. 23

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release December 2, 2002

FREE EXPRESSION AND ART ADVOCACY ORGANIZATIONS PROTEST THE CRIMINALIZATION OF ARTISTIC EXPRESSION IN CINCINNATI

Today, a group of local and national free expression and art advocacy organizations, the US Section of the International Association of Art Critics, and a number of prominent artists and art critics issued a statement protesting the criminal prosecution and sentencing of photographer Thomas Condon for taking photographs in the Hamilton County morgue.

The organizations and individuals signing the statement protest the use of criminal law to intimidate and stifle creativity. "We do not believe that photographing bodies is a criminal offense to be punished with a two and a half year jail sentence," said Svetlana Mintcheva, arts advocacy coordinator at the National Coalition Against Censorship. She added, "This is the third time since 1990 that criminal charges are leveled against artistic expression in Cincinnati, which raises grave concerns about a chilling effect on artistic freedom."

The group respects the feelings of relatives who believe their rights to privacy have been invaded, but notes the fact that this is not part of the criminal charges against Condon. Even if Condon indirectly caused pain to the relatives that is not a criminal offense. If privacy violations did occur, the remedy would be an action in civil court for damages from the responsible party.

Thomas Condon has been out of jail since September pending appeal. The appeal will be heard on December 5, 2002. If the appeal is rejected, Condon will have to serve the remaining 2 years of his sentence.

We protest the persistent criminalization of artistic expression in Cincinnati and specifically the imprisonment of artist-photographer Thomas Condon on criminal charges of corpse abuse for taking photographs in a Cincinnati morgue.

Since 1990 Cincinnati has been the stage for repeated threats against artistic freedom. The most prominent of these have involved criminal prosecution. In 1990, Contemporary Arts Center Director Dennis Barrie was indicted on criminal charges of obscenity for hosting the controversial Mapplethorpe retrospective, The Perfect Moment. Barrie was found not guilty. Four years later, the Pink Pyramid, a gay bookstore, was charged with obscenity for offering a video of Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salo: 120 Days of Sodom. A settlement was successfully negotiated and the film is back on the shelves. Now an artist is appealing a two and a half year criminal sentence, of which he has already served five months in medium security prison.

Death remains one of the major passages in life and artistic interest in it dates back to ancient times. One of the earliest traditions in photography was to photograph the dead as a way of memorializing them. Nor is photography in the morgue such an exception - bodies are photographed all the time for documentation and scientific purposes, as well as with artistic intent. However, in Cincinnati an artist has been sentenced as a criminal, on charges of corpse abuse, for approaching the subject; a subject that, according to the judge who sentenced him, is "sick" and "disgusting."

Murderers abuse corpses when they dismember or otherwise revile the bodies of their victims. Thomas Condon is an artist working on a project about life and death; he has harmed no one. The only harm was done when some of the confiscated photographs appeared in the media, understandably upsetting the relatives of the dead. But it is the police, who had the photographs in their possession, who should bear responsibility for making them public. Thomas Condon did not publish any of the photographs; he didn't even have the chance to produce final prints before his film was confiscated. Even if Condon indirectly caused pain to the relatives of the dead, that is not a criminal issue and belongs in the civil courts.

We welcome debate about the value of art, we respect the feelings of those who believe their rights to privacy have been invaded, and we agree they should be heard. We protest the use of criminal law to intimidate and stifle creativity. Artistic expression, even when it is controversial or offends some sensibilities, is essential to our society and has the full protection of the First Amendment. Art is not a crime.

National Coalition Against Censorship
Cincinnati Campaign Against Censorship in the Arts
Feminists for Free Expression
Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts
AICA - International Association of Art Critics (US Section) Martha Wilson, Franklin Furnace founding director
Hans Haacke, artist
Nancy Spero, artist
Leon Golub, artist
Craig Lucas, playwright
Declan McCullagh, Photographer / Editor, Politech newswire
Katha Pollitt, writer and journalist
Milos Forman, filmmaker
Melissa Harris, Editor-in-Chief, Aperture
Donald Goddard, art critic
Eunice Lipton, art critic
Robert Atkins, art critic
Richard Kostelanetz, art critic
Peter Frank, art critic
Shifra M. Goldman, Art Historian