Ruti Sela

Winner of Kiefer Scholarship 2009

Ruti Sela creates provocative, incisive, and uncompromising video works. Her work is characterized by humor, almost ruthless curiosity, and meticulous aesthetics. It is focused on the Israeli experience, drawing from it universally human statements. She begins at the margins and then moves toward the center. At the same time, she deals with the relationship between words, images, and sound, and explores the relationship between fantasy and reality in both art and life.

Sela skillfully identifies, extracts, and presents sharp and precise moments of humanity that are both disturbing and moving. Through the camera, she observes people whom she marks and collects from the Israeli landscape—people who are often looked at but not really liked: nighttime passengers on an intercity bus, demonstrators against the Pride Parade in Jerusalem, prostitutes, “good boys” seeking bizarre sexual encounters on online dating sites, partygoers gathered in a nightclub’s restroom. Through them, she examines accepted perceptions and values, deconstructs them, and reconstructs them.

At first glance, Sela’s video works seem to belong to the genre of documentary cinema. A closer look reveals that she does not settle for mere documentation or voyeurism. The camera’s prominent presence turns the filmed events into a kind of performance in which she actively participates. In most of her films, she manipulates the filmed subjects through verbal and physical provocations. At the same time, she adopts the behavior and appearance of the people she films.

In one of her films, she even swaps places with the filmed subject, blurring the usual dichotomy of object-subject in the Western art tradition. The artistic language she has developed also contains characteristics of the television “reality” genre.

Through manipulative temptation, she maneuvers her “actors” into situations of physical and emotional exposure, examining the accepted separations of the intimate and the public, the real and the false, the good and the bad. Sela’s excellent control of the photographic medium, the meticulous editing of the films, and the accompanying sound create a rich and seductive visual language.

 

The Kiefer Prize winners

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Shai-Lee Horodi

Winner of Kiefer Scholarship in – 2024

The 2017 Ingeborg Bachmann Fellowship, established by Anselm Kiefer, is awarded to the artist Yael Frank for her incisive critique and her ability to challenge the social infrastructure that often politicizes death, validating the mechanisms of power and policing historical narratives through the socialization of data.

Yael Frank (born 1982), is a multidisciplinary creator working in video, installation, sound, sculpture, and the creation of immersive environments. Her works engage visitors in situations characterized by disruptions, interruptions, and unresolved distortions. Through these techniques of subversion, Frank’s work reveals the politics embedded in power structures, systems of knowledge, and historical narratives, often leading to uncertainty and exposing the contradictions inherent in existence. This casting of doubt undermines the strong convictions and beliefs that underpin systems of knowledge dissemination and the establishment of cultural, social, gender, and economic canons.

Frank’s work oscillates between cynical realism and a sarcastic post-irony that deconstructs taboo subjects and fearlessly delivers sharp critiques of human existence and the socialization of the culture of death. This culture often serves to reinforce the significant, yet implied, values of societies. For instance, in The Monuments of Monuments (2014), Frank uses the sanctity of death, as depicted in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, as a compositional framework. Here, eleven colossal pink fingers emerge from a wooden surface, replacing the drowning heroes of the colonialist raft en route to Mauritania on July 2, 1816. In another work, the karaoke machine SING ALONG (2013), Frank blends unsettling humor and historical critique: the machine produces “bad luck” as ghostly figures appear behind a screen, accompanied by Chopin’s Funeral March. This march, originally played at the composer’s burial on October 30, 1849, was later adapted as a military march for John F. Kennedy’s funeral on November 25, 1963. A superstitious belief arose that performing the march could lead to the death of loved ones. Frank uses these “problems,” as she calls them, to illuminate the ways beliefs and knowledge shape human experiences of life and death.

In her work Problem (2016–2017), Frank intensifies this critique by presenting medical machines that narrate empty emotional politics and banal catastrophes, displayed in an orderly and sterile glass case.

Karam Natour

Winner of Kiefer Scholarship in – 2020

The 2017 Ingeborg Bachmann Fellowship, established by Anselm Kiefer, is awarded to the artist Yael Frank for her incisive critique and her ability to challenge the social infrastructure that often politicizes death, validating the mechanisms of power and policing historical narratives through the socialization of data.

Yael Frank (born 1982), is a multidisciplinary creator working in video, installation, sound, sculpture, and the creation of immersive environments. Her works engage visitors in situations characterized by disruptions, interruptions, and unresolved distortions. Through these techniques of subversion, Frank’s work reveals the politics embedded in power structures, systems of knowledge, and historical narratives, often leading to uncertainty and exposing the contradictions inherent in existence. This casting of doubt undermines the strong convictions and beliefs that underpin systems of knowledge dissemination and the establishment of cultural, social, gender, and economic canons.

Frank’s work oscillates between cynical realism and a sarcastic post-irony that deconstructs taboo subjects and fearlessly delivers sharp critiques of human existence and the socialization of the culture of death. This culture often serves to reinforce the significant, yet implied, values of societies. For instance, in The Monuments of Monuments (2014), Frank uses the sanctity of death, as depicted in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, as a compositional framework. Here, eleven colossal pink fingers emerge from a wooden surface, replacing the drowning heroes of the colonialist raft en route to Mauritania on July 2, 1816. In another work, the karaoke machine SING ALONG (2013), Frank blends unsettling humor and historical critique: the machine produces “bad luck” as ghostly figures appear behind a screen, accompanied by Chopin’s Funeral March. This march, originally played at the composer’s burial on October 30, 1849, was later adapted as a military march for John F. Kennedy’s funeral on November 25, 1963. A superstitious belief arose that performing the march could lead to the death of loved ones. Frank uses these “problems,” as she calls them, to illuminate the ways beliefs and knowledge shape human experiences of life and death.

In her work Problem (2016–2017), Frank intensifies this critique by presenting medical machines that narrate empty emotional politics and banal catastrophes, displayed in an orderly and sterile glass case.

Yael Frank

Winner of Kiefer Scholarship in – 2017

The 2017 Ingeborg Bachmann Fellowship, established by Anselm Kiefer, is awarded to the artist Yael Frank for her incisive critique and her ability to challenge the social infrastructure that often politicizes death, validating the mechanisms of power and policing historical narratives through the socialization of data.

Yael Frank (born 1982), is a multidisciplinary creator working in video, installation, sound, sculpture, and the creation of immersive environments. Her works engage visitors in situations characterized by disruptions, interruptions, and unresolved distortions. Through these techniques of subversion, Frank’s work reveals the politics embedded in power structures, systems of knowledge, and historical narratives, often leading to uncertainty and exposing the contradictions inherent in existence. This casting of doubt undermines the strong convictions and beliefs that underpin systems of knowledge dissemination and the establishment of cultural, social, gender, and economic canons.

Frank’s work oscillates between cynical realism and a sarcastic post-irony that deconstructs taboo subjects and fearlessly delivers sharp critiques of human existence and the socialization of the culture of death. This culture often serves to reinforce the significant, yet implied, values of societies. For instance, in The Monuments of Monuments (2014), Frank uses the sanctity of death, as depicted in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, as a compositional framework. Here, eleven colossal pink fingers emerge from a wooden surface, replacing the drowning heroes of the colonialist raft en route to Mauritania on July 2, 1816. In another work, the karaoke machine SING ALONG (2013), Frank blends unsettling humor and historical critique: the machine produces “bad luck” as ghostly figures appear behind a screen, accompanied by Chopin’s Funeral March. This march, originally played at the composer’s burial on October 30, 1849, was later adapted as a military march for John F. Kennedy’s funeral on November 25, 1963. A superstitious belief arose that performing the march could lead to the death of loved ones. Frank uses these “problems,” as she calls them, to illuminate the ways beliefs and knowledge shape human experiences of life and death.

In her work Problem (2016–2017), Frank intensifies this critique by presenting medical machines that narrate empty emotional politics and banal catastrophes, displayed in an orderly and sterile glass case.

Naama Arad

Winner of Kiefer Scholarship 2015

The 2017 Ingeborg Bachmann Fellowship, established by Anselm Kiefer, is awarded to the artist Yael Frank for her incisive critique and her ability to challenge the social infrastructure that often politicizes death, validating the mechanisms of power and policing historical narratives through the socialization of data.

Yael Frank (born 1982), is a multidisciplinary creator working in video, installation, sound, sculpture, and the creation of immersive environments. Her works engage visitors in situations characterized by disruptions, interruptions, and unresolved distortions. Through these techniques of subversion, Frank’s work reveals the politics embedded in power structures, systems of knowledge, and historical narratives, often leading to uncertainty and exposing the contradictions inherent in existence. This casting of doubt undermines the strong convictions and beliefs that underpin systems of knowledge dissemination and the establishment of cultural, social, gender, and economic canons.

Frank’s work oscillates between cynical realism and a sarcastic post-irony that deconstructs taboo subjects and fearlessly delivers sharp critiques of human existence and the socialization of the culture of death. This culture often serves to reinforce the significant, yet implied, values of societies. For instance, in The Monuments of Monuments (2014), Frank uses the sanctity of death, as depicted in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, as a compositional framework. Here, eleven colossal pink fingers emerge from a wooden surface, replacing the drowning heroes of the colonialist raft en route to Mauritania on July 2, 1816. In another work, the karaoke machine SING ALONG (2013), Frank blends unsettling humor and historical critique: the machine produces “bad luck” as ghostly figures appear behind a screen, accompanied by Chopin’s Funeral March. This march, originally played at the composer’s burial on October 30, 1849, was later adapted as a military march for John F. Kennedy’s funeral on November 25, 1963. A superstitious belief arose that performing the march could lead to the death of loved ones. Frank uses these “problems,” as she calls them, to illuminate the ways beliefs and knowledge shape human experiences of life and death.

In her work Problem (2016–2017), Frank intensifies this critique by presenting medical machines that narrate empty emotional politics and banal catastrophes, displayed in an orderly and sterile glass case.

Tamar Harpaz

Winner of Kiefer Scholarship 2013

The 2017 Ingeborg Bachmann Fellowship, established by Anselm Kiefer, is awarded to the artist Yael Frank for her incisive critique and her ability to challenge the social infrastructure that often politicizes death, validating the mechanisms of power and policing historical narratives through the socialization of data.

Yael Frank (born 1982), is a multidisciplinary creator working in video, installation, sound, sculpture, and the creation of immersive environments. Her works engage visitors in situations characterized by disruptions, interruptions, and unresolved distortions. Through these techniques of subversion, Frank’s work reveals the politics embedded in power structures, systems of knowledge, and historical narratives, often leading to uncertainty and exposing the contradictions inherent in existence. This casting of doubt undermines the strong convictions and beliefs that underpin systems of knowledge dissemination and the establishment of cultural, social, gender, and economic canons.

Frank’s work oscillates between cynical realism and a sarcastic post-irony that deconstructs taboo subjects and fearlessly delivers sharp critiques of human existence and the socialization of the culture of death. This culture often serves to reinforce the significant, yet implied, values of societies. For instance, in The Monuments of Monuments (2014), Frank uses the sanctity of death, as depicted in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, as a compositional framework. Here, eleven colossal pink fingers emerge from a wooden surface, replacing the drowning heroes of the colonialist raft en route to Mauritania on July 2, 1816. In another work, the karaoke machine SING ALONG (2013), Frank blends unsettling humor and historical critique: the machine produces “bad luck” as ghostly figures appear behind a screen, accompanied by Chopin’s Funeral March. This march, originally played at the composer’s burial on October 30, 1849, was later adapted as a military march for John F. Kennedy’s funeral on November 25, 1963. A superstitious belief arose that performing the march could lead to the death of loved ones. Frank uses these “problems,” as she calls them, to illuminate the ways beliefs and knowledge shape human experiences of life and death.

In her work Problem (2016–2017), Frank intensifies this critique by presenting medical machines that narrate empty emotional politics and banal catastrophes, displayed in an orderly and sterile glass case.

Gilad Ratman

Winner of Kiefer Scholarship 2011

The 2017 Ingeborg Bachmann Fellowship, established by Anselm Kiefer, is awarded to the artist Yael Frank for her incisive critique and her ability to challenge the social infrastructure that often politicizes death, validating the mechanisms of power and policing historical narratives through the socialization of data.

Yael Frank (born 1982), is a multidisciplinary creator working in video, installation, sound, sculpture, and the creation of immersive environments. Her works engage visitors in situations characterized by disruptions, interruptions, and unresolved distortions. Through these techniques of subversion, Frank’s work reveals the politics embedded in power structures, systems of knowledge, and historical narratives, often leading to uncertainty and exposing the contradictions inherent in existence. This casting of doubt undermines the strong convictions and beliefs that underpin systems of knowledge dissemination and the establishment of cultural, social, gender, and economic canons.

Frank’s work oscillates between cynical realism and a sarcastic post-irony that deconstructs taboo subjects and fearlessly delivers sharp critiques of human existence and the socialization of the culture of death. This culture often serves to reinforce the significant, yet implied, values of societies. For instance, in The Monuments of Monuments (2014), Frank uses the sanctity of death, as depicted in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, as a compositional framework. Here, eleven colossal pink fingers emerge from a wooden surface, replacing the drowning heroes of the colonialist raft en route to Mauritania on July 2, 1816. In another work, the karaoke machine SING ALONG (2013), Frank blends unsettling humor and historical critique: the machine produces “bad luck” as ghostly figures appear behind a screen, accompanied by Chopin’s Funeral March. This march, originally played at the composer’s burial on October 30, 1849, was later adapted as a military march for John F. Kennedy’s funeral on November 25, 1963. A superstitious belief arose that performing the march could lead to the death of loved ones. Frank uses these “problems,” as she calls them, to illuminate the ways beliefs and knowledge shape human experiences of life and death.

In her work Problem (2016–2017), Frank intensifies this critique by presenting medical machines that narrate empty emotional politics and banal catastrophes, displayed in an orderly and sterile glass case.

Ruti Sela

Winner of Kiefer Scholarship 2009

The 2017 Ingeborg Bachmann Fellowship, established by Anselm Kiefer, is awarded to the artist Yael Frank for her incisive critique and her ability to challenge the social infrastructure that often politicizes death, validating the mechanisms of power and policing historical narratives through the socialization of data.

Yael Frank (born 1982), is a multidisciplinary creator working in video, installation, sound, sculpture, and the creation of immersive environments. Her works engage visitors in situations characterized by disruptions, interruptions, and unresolved distortions. Through these techniques of subversion, Frank’s work reveals the politics embedded in power structures, systems of knowledge, and historical narratives, often leading to uncertainty and exposing the contradictions inherent in existence. This casting of doubt undermines the strong convictions and beliefs that underpin systems of knowledge dissemination and the establishment of cultural, social, gender, and economic canons.

Frank’s work oscillates between cynical realism and a sarcastic post-irony that deconstructs taboo subjects and fearlessly delivers sharp critiques of human existence and the socialization of the culture of death. This culture often serves to reinforce the significant, yet implied, values of societies. For instance, in The Monuments of Monuments (2014), Frank uses the sanctity of death, as depicted in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, as a compositional framework. Here, eleven colossal pink fingers emerge from a wooden surface, replacing the drowning heroes of the colonialist raft en route to Mauritania on July 2, 1816. In another work, the karaoke machine SING ALONG (2013), Frank blends unsettling humor and historical critique: the machine produces “bad luck” as ghostly figures appear behind a screen, accompanied by Chopin’s Funeral March. This march, originally played at the composer’s burial on October 30, 1849, was later adapted as a military march for John F. Kennedy’s funeral on November 25, 1963. A superstitious belief arose that performing the march could lead to the death of loved ones. Frank uses these “problems,” as she calls them, to illuminate the ways beliefs and knowledge shape human experiences of life and death.

In her work Problem (2016–2017), Frank intensifies this critique by presenting medical machines that narrate empty emotional politics and banal catastrophes, displayed in an orderly and sterile glass case.

Barak Ravitz

Winner of Kiefer Scholarship 2007

The 2017 Ingeborg Bachmann Fellowship, established by Anselm Kiefer, is awarded to the artist Yael Frank for her incisive critique and her ability to challenge the social infrastructure that often politicizes death, validating the mechanisms of power and policing historical narratives through the socialization of data.

Yael Frank (born 1982), is a multidisciplinary creator working in video, installation, sound, sculpture, and the creation of immersive environments. Her works engage visitors in situations characterized by disruptions, interruptions, and unresolved distortions. Through these techniques of subversion, Frank’s work reveals the politics embedded in power structures, systems of knowledge, and historical narratives, often leading to uncertainty and exposing the contradictions inherent in existence. This casting of doubt undermines the strong convictions and beliefs that underpin systems of knowledge dissemination and the establishment of cultural, social, gender, and economic canons.

Frank’s work oscillates between cynical realism and a sarcastic post-irony that deconstructs taboo subjects and fearlessly delivers sharp critiques of human existence and the socialization of the culture of death. This culture often serves to reinforce the significant, yet implied, values of societies. For instance, in The Monuments of Monuments (2014), Frank uses the sanctity of death, as depicted in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, as a compositional framework. Here, eleven colossal pink fingers emerge from a wooden surface, replacing the drowning heroes of the colonialist raft en route to Mauritania on July 2, 1816. In another work, the karaoke machine SING ALONG (2013), Frank blends unsettling humor and historical critique: the machine produces “bad luck” as ghostly figures appear behind a screen, accompanied by Chopin’s Funeral March. This march, originally played at the composer’s burial on October 30, 1849, was later adapted as a military march for John F. Kennedy’s funeral on November 25, 1963. A superstitious belief arose that performing the march could lead to the death of loved ones. Frank uses these “problems,” as she calls them, to illuminate the ways beliefs and knowledge shape human experiences of life and death.

In her work Problem (2016–2017), Frank intensifies this critique by presenting medical machines that narrate empty emotional politics and banal catastrophes, displayed in an orderly and sterile glass case.

Talia Keinan

Winner of Kiefer Scholarship 2005

The 2017 Ingeborg Bachmann Fellowship, established by Anselm Kiefer, is awarded to the artist Yael Frank for her incisive critique and her ability to challenge the social infrastructure that often politicizes death, validating the mechanisms of power and policing historical narratives through the socialization of data.

Yael Frank (born 1982), is a multidisciplinary creator working in video, installation, sound, sculpture, and the creation of immersive environments. Her works engage visitors in situations characterized by disruptions, interruptions, and unresolved distortions. Through these techniques of subversion, Frank’s work reveals the politics embedded in power structures, systems of knowledge, and historical narratives, often leading to uncertainty and exposing the contradictions inherent in existence. This casting of doubt undermines the strong convictions and beliefs that underpin systems of knowledge dissemination and the establishment of cultural, social, gender, and economic canons.

Frank’s work oscillates between cynical realism and a sarcastic post-irony that deconstructs taboo subjects and fearlessly delivers sharp critiques of human existence and the socialization of the culture of death. This culture often serves to reinforce the significant, yet implied, values of societies. For instance, in The Monuments of Monuments (2014), Frank uses the sanctity of death, as depicted in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, as a compositional framework. Here, eleven colossal pink fingers emerge from a wooden surface, replacing the drowning heroes of the colonialist raft en route to Mauritania on July 2, 1816. In another work, the karaoke machine SING ALONG (2013), Frank blends unsettling humor and historical critique: the machine produces “bad luck” as ghostly figures appear behind a screen, accompanied by Chopin’s Funeral March. This march, originally played at the composer’s burial on October 30, 1849, was later adapted as a military march for John F. Kennedy’s funeral on November 25, 1963. A superstitious belief arose that performing the march could lead to the death of loved ones. Frank uses these “problems,” as she calls them, to illuminate the ways beliefs and knowledge shape human experiences of life and death.

In her work Problem (2016–2017), Frank intensifies this critique by presenting medical machines that narrate empty emotional politics and banal catastrophes, displayed in an orderly and sterile glass case.

Yael Bartana

Winner of Kiefer Scholarship 2003

The 2017 Ingeborg Bachmann Fellowship, established by Anselm Kiefer, is awarded to the artist Yael Frank for her incisive critique and her ability to challenge the social infrastructure that often politicizes death, validating the mechanisms of power and policing historical narratives through the socialization of data.

Yael Frank (born 1982), is a multidisciplinary creator working in video, installation, sound, sculpture, and the creation of immersive environments. Her works engage visitors in situations characterized by disruptions, interruptions, and unresolved distortions. Through these techniques of subversion, Frank’s work reveals the politics embedded in power structures, systems of knowledge, and historical narratives, often leading to uncertainty and exposing the contradictions inherent in existence. This casting of doubt undermines the strong convictions and beliefs that underpin systems of knowledge dissemination and the establishment of cultural, social, gender, and economic canons.

Frank’s work oscillates between cynical realism and a sarcastic post-irony that deconstructs taboo subjects and fearlessly delivers sharp critiques of human existence and the socialization of the culture of death. This culture often serves to reinforce the significant, yet implied, values of societies. For instance, in The Monuments of Monuments (2014), Frank uses the sanctity of death, as depicted in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, as a compositional framework. Here, eleven colossal pink fingers emerge from a wooden surface, replacing the drowning heroes of the colonialist raft en route to Mauritania on July 2, 1816. In another work, the karaoke machine SING ALONG (2013), Frank blends unsettling humor and historical critique: the machine produces “bad luck” as ghostly figures appear behind a screen, accompanied by Chopin’s Funeral March. This march, originally played at the composer’s burial on October 30, 1849, was later adapted as a military march for John F. Kennedy’s funeral on November 25, 1963. A superstitious belief arose that performing the march could lead to the death of loved ones. Frank uses these “problems,” as she calls them, to illuminate the ways beliefs and knowledge shape human experiences of life and death.

In her work Problem (2016–2017), Frank intensifies this critique by presenting medical machines that narrate empty emotional politics and banal catastrophes, displayed in an orderly and sterile glass case.

Uri Nir

Winner of Kiefer Scholarship 2002

The 2017 Ingeborg Bachmann Fellowship, established by Anselm Kiefer, is awarded to the artist Yael Frank for her incisive critique and her ability to challenge the social infrastructure that often politicizes death, validating the mechanisms of power and policing historical narratives through the socialization of data.

Yael Frank (born 1982), is a multidisciplinary creator working in video, installation, sound, sculpture, and the creation of immersive environments. Her works engage visitors in situations characterized by disruptions, interruptions, and unresolved distortions. Through these techniques of subversion, Frank’s work reveals the politics embedded in power structures, systems of knowledge, and historical narratives, often leading to uncertainty and exposing the contradictions inherent in existence. This casting of doubt undermines the strong convictions and beliefs that underpin systems of knowledge dissemination and the establishment of cultural, social, gender, and economic canons.

Frank’s work oscillates between cynical realism and a sarcastic post-irony that deconstructs taboo subjects and fearlessly delivers sharp critiques of human existence and the socialization of the culture of death. This culture often serves to reinforce the significant, yet implied, values of societies. For instance, in The Monuments of Monuments (2014), Frank uses the sanctity of death, as depicted in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, as a compositional framework. Here, eleven colossal pink fingers emerge from a wooden surface, replacing the drowning heroes of the colonialist raft en route to Mauritania on July 2, 1816. In another work, the karaoke machine SING ALONG (2013), Frank blends unsettling humor and historical critique: the machine produces “bad luck” as ghostly figures appear behind a screen, accompanied by Chopin’s Funeral March. This march, originally played at the composer’s burial on October 30, 1849, was later adapted as a military march for John F. Kennedy’s funeral on November 25, 1963. A superstitious belief arose that performing the march could lead to the death of loved ones. Frank uses these “problems,” as she calls them, to illuminate the ways beliefs and knowledge shape human experiences of life and death.

In her work Problem (2016–2017), Frank intensifies this critique by presenting medical machines that narrate empty emotional politics and banal catastrophes, displayed in an orderly and sterile glass case.

Rona Yefman

Winner of Kiefer Scholarship 2001

The 2017 Ingeborg Bachmann Fellowship, established by Anselm Kiefer, is awarded to the artist Yael Frank for her incisive critique and her ability to challenge the social infrastructure that often politicizes death, validating the mechanisms of power and policing historical narratives through the socialization of data.

Yael Frank (born 1982), is a multidisciplinary creator working in video, installation, sound, sculpture, and the creation of immersive environments. Her works engage visitors in situations characterized by disruptions, interruptions, and unresolved distortions. Through these techniques of subversion, Frank’s work reveals the politics embedded in power structures, systems of knowledge, and historical narratives, often leading to uncertainty and exposing the contradictions inherent in existence. This casting of doubt undermines the strong convictions and beliefs that underpin systems of knowledge dissemination and the establishment of cultural, social, gender, and economic canons.

Frank’s work oscillates between cynical realism and a sarcastic post-irony that deconstructs taboo subjects and fearlessly delivers sharp critiques of human existence and the socialization of the culture of death. This culture often serves to reinforce the significant, yet implied, values of societies. For instance, in The Monuments of Monuments (2014), Frank uses the sanctity of death, as depicted in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, as a compositional framework. Here, eleven colossal pink fingers emerge from a wooden surface, replacing the drowning heroes of the colonialist raft en route to Mauritania on July 2, 1816. In another work, the karaoke machine SING ALONG (2013), Frank blends unsettling humor and historical critique: the machine produces “bad luck” as ghostly figures appear behind a screen, accompanied by Chopin’s Funeral March. This march, originally played at the composer’s burial on October 30, 1849, was later adapted as a military march for John F. Kennedy’s funeral on November 25, 1963. A superstitious belief arose that performing the march could lead to the death of loved ones. Frank uses these “problems,” as she calls them, to illuminate the ways beliefs and knowledge shape human experiences of life and death.

In her work Problem (2016–2017), Frank intensifies this critique by presenting medical machines that narrate empty emotional politics and banal catastrophes, displayed in an orderly and sterile glass case.

Ruti Nemet

Winner of Kiefer Scholarship 2000

The 2017 Ingeborg Bachmann Fellowship, established by Anselm Kiefer, is awarded to the artist Yael Frank for her incisive critique and her ability to challenge the social infrastructure that often politicizes death, validating the mechanisms of power and policing historical narratives through the socialization of data.

Yael Frank (born 1982), is a multidisciplinary creator working in video, installation, sound, sculpture, and the creation of immersive environments. Her works engage visitors in situations characterized by disruptions, interruptions, and unresolved distortions. Through these techniques of subversion, Frank’s work reveals the politics embedded in power structures, systems of knowledge, and historical narratives, often leading to uncertainty and exposing the contradictions inherent in existence. This casting of doubt undermines the strong convictions and beliefs that underpin systems of knowledge dissemination and the establishment of cultural, social, gender, and economic canons.

Frank’s work oscillates between cynical realism and a sarcastic post-irony that deconstructs taboo subjects and fearlessly delivers sharp critiques of human existence and the socialization of the culture of death. This culture often serves to reinforce the significant, yet implied, values of societies. For instance, in The Monuments of Monuments (2014), Frank uses the sanctity of death, as depicted in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, as a compositional framework. Here, eleven colossal pink fingers emerge from a wooden surface, replacing the drowning heroes of the colonialist raft en route to Mauritania on July 2, 1816. In another work, the karaoke machine SING ALONG (2013), Frank blends unsettling humor and historical critique: the machine produces “bad luck” as ghostly figures appear behind a screen, accompanied by Chopin’s Funeral March. This march, originally played at the composer’s burial on October 30, 1849, was later adapted as a military march for John F. Kennedy’s funeral on November 25, 1963. A superstitious belief arose that performing the march could lead to the death of loved ones. Frank uses these “problems,” as she calls them, to illuminate the ways beliefs and knowledge shape human experiences of life and death.

In her work Problem (2016–2017), Frank intensifies this critique by presenting medical machines that narrate empty emotional politics and banal catastrophes, displayed in an orderly and sterile glass case.

Zoya Cherkasski

Winner of Kiefer Scholarship 2000

The 2017 Ingeborg Bachmann Fellowship, established by Anselm Kiefer, is awarded to the artist Yael Frank for her incisive critique and her ability to challenge the social infrastructure that often politicizes death, validating the mechanisms of power and policing historical narratives through the socialization of data.

Yael Frank (born 1982), is a multidisciplinary creator working in video, installation, sound, sculpture, and the creation of immersive environments. Her works engage visitors in situations characterized by disruptions, interruptions, and unresolved distortions. Through these techniques of subversion, Frank’s work reveals the politics embedded in power structures, systems of knowledge, and historical narratives, often leading to uncertainty and exposing the contradictions inherent in existence. This casting of doubt undermines the strong convictions and beliefs that underpin systems of knowledge dissemination and the establishment of cultural, social, gender, and economic canons.

Frank’s work oscillates between cynical realism and a sarcastic post-irony that deconstructs taboo subjects and fearlessly delivers sharp critiques of human existence and the socialization of the culture of death. This culture often serves to reinforce the significant, yet implied, values of societies. For instance, in The Monuments of Monuments (2014), Frank uses the sanctity of death, as depicted in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, as a compositional framework. Here, eleven colossal pink fingers emerge from a wooden surface, replacing the drowning heroes of the colonialist raft en route to Mauritania on July 2, 1816. In another work, the karaoke machine SING ALONG (2013), Frank blends unsettling humor and historical critique: the machine produces “bad luck” as ghostly figures appear behind a screen, accompanied by Chopin’s Funeral March. This march, originally played at the composer’s burial on October 30, 1849, was later adapted as a military march for John F. Kennedy’s funeral on November 25, 1963. A superstitious belief arose that performing the march could lead to the death of loved ones. Frank uses these “problems,” as she calls them, to illuminate the ways beliefs and knowledge shape human experiences of life and death.

In her work Problem (2016–2017), Frank intensifies this critique by presenting medical machines that narrate empty emotional politics and banal catastrophes, displayed in an orderly and sterile glass case.

Yigal Nizri

Winner of Kiefer Scholarship 1999

The 2017 Ingeborg Bachmann Fellowship, established by Anselm Kiefer, is awarded to the artist Yael Frank for her incisive critique and her ability to challenge the social infrastructure that often politicizes death, validating the mechanisms of power and policing historical narratives through the socialization of data.

Yael Frank (born 1982), is a multidisciplinary creator working in video, installation, sound, sculpture, and the creation of immersive environments. Her works engage visitors in situations characterized by disruptions, interruptions, and unresolved distortions. Through these techniques of subversion, Frank’s work reveals the politics embedded in power structures, systems of knowledge, and historical narratives, often leading to uncertainty and exposing the contradictions inherent in existence. This casting of doubt undermines the strong convictions and beliefs that underpin systems of knowledge dissemination and the establishment of cultural, social, gender, and economic canons.

Frank’s work oscillates between cynical realism and a sarcastic post-irony that deconstructs taboo subjects and fearlessly delivers sharp critiques of human existence and the socialization of the culture of death. This culture often serves to reinforce the significant, yet implied, values of societies. For instance, in The Monuments of Monuments (2014), Frank uses the sanctity of death, as depicted in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, as a compositional framework. Here, eleven colossal pink fingers emerge from a wooden surface, replacing the drowning heroes of the colonialist raft en route to Mauritania on July 2, 1816. In another work, the karaoke machine SING ALONG (2013), Frank blends unsettling humor and historical critique: the machine produces “bad luck” as ghostly figures appear behind a screen, accompanied by Chopin’s Funeral March. This march, originally played at the composer’s burial on October 30, 1849, was later adapted as a military march for John F. Kennedy’s funeral on November 25, 1963. A superstitious belief arose that performing the march could lead to the death of loved ones. Frank uses these “problems,” as she calls them, to illuminate the ways beliefs and knowledge shape human experiences of life and death.

In her work Problem (2016–2017), Frank intensifies this critique by presenting medical machines that narrate empty emotional politics and banal catastrophes, displayed in an orderly and sterile glass case.

Michal Helfman

Winner of Kiefer Scholarship 1998

The 2017 Ingeborg Bachmann Fellowship, established by Anselm Kiefer, is awarded to the artist Yael Frank for her incisive critique and her ability to challenge the social infrastructure that often politicizes death, validating the mechanisms of power and policing historical narratives through the socialization of data.

Yael Frank (born 1982), is a multidisciplinary creator working in video, installation, sound, sculpture, and the creation of immersive environments. Her works engage visitors in situations characterized by disruptions, interruptions, and unresolved distortions. Through these techniques of subversion, Frank’s work reveals the politics embedded in power structures, systems of knowledge, and historical narratives, often leading to uncertainty and exposing the contradictions inherent in existence. This casting of doubt undermines the strong convictions and beliefs that underpin systems of knowledge dissemination and the establishment of cultural, social, gender, and economic canons.

Frank’s work oscillates between cynical realism and a sarcastic post-irony that deconstructs taboo subjects and fearlessly delivers sharp critiques of human existence and the socialization of the culture of death. This culture often serves to reinforce the significant, yet implied, values of societies. For instance, in The Monuments of Monuments (2014), Frank uses the sanctity of death, as depicted in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, as a compositional framework. Here, eleven colossal pink fingers emerge from a wooden surface, replacing the drowning heroes of the colonialist raft en route to Mauritania on July 2, 1816. In another work, the karaoke machine SING ALONG (2013), Frank blends unsettling humor and historical critique: the machine produces “bad luck” as ghostly figures appear behind a screen, accompanied by Chopin’s Funeral March. This march, originally played at the composer’s burial on October 30, 1849, was later adapted as a military march for John F. Kennedy’s funeral on November 25, 1963. A superstitious belief arose that performing the march could lead to the death of loved ones. Frank uses these “problems,” as she calls them, to illuminate the ways beliefs and knowledge shape human experiences of life and death.

In her work Problem (2016–2017), Frank intensifies this critique by presenting medical machines that narrate empty emotional politics and banal catastrophes, displayed in an orderly and sterile glass case.

Doron Ravina

Winner of Kiefer 1997

The 2017 Ingeborg Bachmann Fellowship, established by Anselm Kiefer, is awarded to the artist Yael Frank for her incisive critique and her ability to challenge the social infrastructure that often politicizes death, validating the mechanisms of power and policing historical narratives through the socialization of data.

Yael Frank (born 1982), is a multidisciplinary creator working in video, installation, sound, sculpture, and the creation of immersive environments. Her works engage visitors in situations characterized by disruptions, interruptions, and unresolved distortions. Through these techniques of subversion, Frank’s work reveals the politics embedded in power structures, systems of knowledge, and historical narratives, often leading to uncertainty and exposing the contradictions inherent in existence. This casting of doubt undermines the strong convictions and beliefs that underpin systems of knowledge dissemination and the establishment of cultural, social, gender, and economic canons.

Frank’s work oscillates between cynical realism and a sarcastic post-irony that deconstructs taboo subjects and fearlessly delivers sharp critiques of human existence and the socialization of the culture of death. This culture often serves to reinforce the significant, yet implied, values of societies. For instance, in The Monuments of Monuments (2014), Frank uses the sanctity of death, as depicted in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, as a compositional framework. Here, eleven colossal pink fingers emerge from a wooden surface, replacing the drowning heroes of the colonialist raft en route to Mauritania on July 2, 1816. In another work, the karaoke machine SING ALONG (2013), Frank blends unsettling humor and historical critique: the machine produces “bad luck” as ghostly figures appear behind a screen, accompanied by Chopin’s Funeral March. This march, originally played at the composer’s burial on October 30, 1849, was later adapted as a military march for John F. Kennedy’s funeral on November 25, 1963. A superstitious belief arose that performing the march could lead to the death of loved ones. Frank uses these “problems,” as she calls them, to illuminate the ways beliefs and knowledge shape human experiences of life and death.

In her work Problem (2016–2017), Frank intensifies this critique by presenting medical machines that narrate empty emotional politics and banal catastrophes, displayed in an orderly and sterile glass case.

Yehudith Sasportas

Winner of Kiefer Scholarship 1996

The 2017 Ingeborg Bachmann Fellowship, established by Anselm Kiefer, is awarded to the artist Yael Frank for her incisive critique and her ability to challenge the social infrastructure that often politicizes death, validating the mechanisms of power and policing historical narratives through the socialization of data.

Yael Frank (born 1982), is a multidisciplinary creator working in video, installation, sound, sculpture, and the creation of immersive environments. Her works engage visitors in situations characterized by disruptions, interruptions, and unresolved distortions. Through these techniques of subversion, Frank’s work reveals the politics embedded in power structures, systems of knowledge, and historical narratives, often leading to uncertainty and exposing the contradictions inherent in existence. This casting of doubt undermines the strong convictions and beliefs that underpin systems of knowledge dissemination and the establishment of cultural, social, gender, and economic canons.

Frank’s work oscillates between cynical realism and a sarcastic post-irony that deconstructs taboo subjects and fearlessly delivers sharp critiques of human existence and the socialization of the culture of death. This culture often serves to reinforce the significant, yet implied, values of societies. For instance, in The Monuments of Monuments (2014), Frank uses the sanctity of death, as depicted in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, as a compositional framework. Here, eleven colossal pink fingers emerge from a wooden surface, replacing the drowning heroes of the colonialist raft en route to Mauritania on July 2, 1816. In another work, the karaoke machine SING ALONG (2013), Frank blends unsettling humor and historical critique: the machine produces “bad luck” as ghostly figures appear behind a screen, accompanied by Chopin’s Funeral March. This march, originally played at the composer’s burial on October 30, 1849, was later adapted as a military march for John F. Kennedy’s funeral on November 25, 1963. A superstitious belief arose that performing the march could lead to the death of loved ones. Frank uses these “problems,” as she calls them, to illuminate the ways beliefs and knowledge shape human experiences of life and death.

In her work Problem (2016–2017), Frank intensifies this critique by presenting medical machines that narrate empty emotional politics and banal catastrophes, displayed in an orderly and sterile glass case.

Sigalit Landau

Winner of Kiefer Scholarship 1995

The 2017 Ingeborg Bachmann Fellowship, established by Anselm Kiefer, is awarded to the artist Yael Frank for her incisive critique and her ability to challenge the social infrastructure that often politicizes death, validating the mechanisms of power and policing historical narratives through the socialization of data.

Yael Frank (born 1982), is a multidisciplinary creator working in video, installation, sound, sculpture, and the creation of immersive environments. Her works engage visitors in situations characterized by disruptions, interruptions, and unresolved distortions. Through these techniques of subversion, Frank’s work reveals the politics embedded in power structures, systems of knowledge, and historical narratives, often leading to uncertainty and exposing the contradictions inherent in existence. This casting of doubt undermines the strong convictions and beliefs that underpin systems of knowledge dissemination and the establishment of cultural, social, gender, and economic canons.

Frank’s work oscillates between cynical realism and a sarcastic post-irony that deconstructs taboo subjects and fearlessly delivers sharp critiques of human existence and the socialization of the culture of death. This culture often serves to reinforce the significant, yet implied, values of societies. For instance, in The Monuments of Monuments (2014), Frank uses the sanctity of death, as depicted in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, as a compositional framework. Here, eleven colossal pink fingers emerge from a wooden surface, replacing the drowning heroes of the colonialist raft en route to Mauritania on July 2, 1816. In another work, the karaoke machine SING ALONG (2013), Frank blends unsettling humor and historical critique: the machine produces “bad luck” as ghostly figures appear behind a screen, accompanied by Chopin’s Funeral March. This march, originally played at the composer’s burial on October 30, 1849, was later adapted as a military march for John F. Kennedy’s funeral on November 25, 1963. A superstitious belief arose that performing the march could lead to the death of loved ones. Frank uses these “problems,” as she calls them, to illuminate the ways beliefs and knowledge shape human experiences of life and death.

In her work Problem (2016–2017), Frank intensifies this critique by presenting medical machines that narrate empty emotional politics and banal catastrophes, displayed in an orderly and sterile glass case.

Gil Shachar

Winner of Kiefer Scholarship 1994

The 2017 Ingeborg Bachmann Fellowship, established by Anselm Kiefer, is awarded to the artist Yael Frank for her incisive critique and her ability to challenge the social infrastructure that often politicizes death, validating the mechanisms of power and policing historical narratives through the socialization of data.

Yael Frank (born 1982), is a multidisciplinary creator working in video, installation, sound, sculpture, and the creation of immersive environments. Her works engage visitors in situations characterized by disruptions, interruptions, and unresolved distortions. Through these techniques of subversion, Frank’s work reveals the politics embedded in power structures, systems of knowledge, and historical narratives, often leading to uncertainty and exposing the contradictions inherent in existence. This casting of doubt undermines the strong convictions and beliefs that underpin systems of knowledge dissemination and the establishment of cultural, social, gender, and economic canons.

Frank’s work oscillates between cynical realism and a sarcastic post-irony that deconstructs taboo subjects and fearlessly delivers sharp critiques of human existence and the socialization of the culture of death. This culture often serves to reinforce the significant, yet implied, values of societies. For instance, in The Monuments of Monuments (2014), Frank uses the sanctity of death, as depicted in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, as a compositional framework. Here, eleven colossal pink fingers emerge from a wooden surface, replacing the drowning heroes of the colonialist raft en route to Mauritania on July 2, 1816. In another work, the karaoke machine SING ALONG (2013), Frank blends unsettling humor and historical critique: the machine produces “bad luck” as ghostly figures appear behind a screen, accompanied by Chopin’s Funeral March. This march, originally played at the composer’s burial on October 30, 1849, was later adapted as a military march for John F. Kennedy’s funeral on November 25, 1963. A superstitious belief arose that performing the march could lead to the death of loved ones. Frank uses these “problems,” as she calls them, to illuminate the ways beliefs and knowledge shape human experiences of life and death.

In her work Problem (2016–2017), Frank intensifies this critique by presenting medical machines that narrate empty emotional politics and banal catastrophes, displayed in an orderly and sterile glass case.

Guy Ben-Ner

Winner of Kiefer Scholarship 1993

The 2017 Ingeborg Bachmann Fellowship, established by Anselm Kiefer, is awarded to the artist Yael Frank for her incisive critique and her ability to challenge the social infrastructure that often politicizes death, validating the mechanisms of power and policing historical narratives through the socialization of data.

Yael Frank (born 1982), is a multidisciplinary creator working in video, installation, sound, sculpture, and the creation of immersive environments. Her works engage visitors in situations characterized by disruptions, interruptions, and unresolved distortions. Through these techniques of subversion, Frank’s work reveals the politics embedded in power structures, systems of knowledge, and historical narratives, often leading to uncertainty and exposing the contradictions inherent in existence. This casting of doubt undermines the strong convictions and beliefs that underpin systems of knowledge dissemination and the establishment of cultural, social, gender, and economic canons.

Frank’s work oscillates between cynical realism and a sarcastic post-irony that deconstructs taboo subjects and fearlessly delivers sharp critiques of human existence and the socialization of the culture of death. This culture often serves to reinforce the significant, yet implied, values of societies. For instance, in The Monuments of Monuments (2014), Frank uses the sanctity of death, as depicted in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, as a compositional framework. Here, eleven colossal pink fingers emerge from a wooden surface, replacing the drowning heroes of the colonialist raft en route to Mauritania on July 2, 1816. In another work, the karaoke machine SING ALONG (2013), Frank blends unsettling humor and historical critique: the machine produces “bad luck” as ghostly figures appear behind a screen, accompanied by Chopin’s Funeral March. This march, originally played at the composer’s burial on October 30, 1849, was later adapted as a military march for John F. Kennedy’s funeral on November 25, 1963. A superstitious belief arose that performing the march could lead to the death of loved ones. Frank uses these “problems,” as she calls them, to illuminate the ways beliefs and knowledge shape human experiences of life and death.

In her work Problem (2016–2017), Frank intensifies this critique by presenting medical machines that narrate empty emotional politics and banal catastrophes, displayed in an orderly and sterile glass case.

Max Friedman

Winner of Kiefer Scholarship 1992

The 2017 Ingeborg Bachmann Fellowship, established by Anselm Kiefer, is awarded to the artist Yael Frank for her incisive critique and her ability to challenge the social infrastructure that often politicizes death, validating the mechanisms of power and policing historical narratives through the socialization of data.

Yael Frank (born 1982), is a multidisciplinary creator working in video, installation, sound, sculpture, and the creation of immersive environments. Her works engage visitors in situations characterized by disruptions, interruptions, and unresolved distortions. Through these techniques of subversion, Frank’s work reveals the politics embedded in power structures, systems of knowledge, and historical narratives, often leading to uncertainty and exposing the contradictions inherent in existence. This casting of doubt undermines the strong convictions and beliefs that underpin systems of knowledge dissemination and the establishment of cultural, social, gender, and economic canons.

Frank’s work oscillates between cynical realism and a sarcastic post-irony that deconstructs taboo subjects and fearlessly delivers sharp critiques of human existence and the socialization of the culture of death. This culture often serves to reinforce the significant, yet implied, values of societies. For instance, in The Monuments of Monuments (2014), Frank uses the sanctity of death, as depicted in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, as a compositional framework. Here, eleven colossal pink fingers emerge from a wooden surface, replacing the drowning heroes of the colonialist raft en route to Mauritania on July 2, 1816. In another work, the karaoke machine SING ALONG (2013), Frank blends unsettling humor and historical critique: the machine produces “bad luck” as ghostly figures appear behind a screen, accompanied by Chopin’s Funeral March. This march, originally played at the composer’s burial on October 30, 1849, was later adapted as a military march for John F. Kennedy’s funeral on November 25, 1963. A superstitious belief arose that performing the march could lead to the death of loved ones. Frank uses these “problems,” as she calls them, to illuminate the ways beliefs and knowledge shape human experiences of life and death.

In her work Problem (2016–2017), Frank intensifies this critique by presenting medical machines that narrate empty emotional politics and banal catastrophes, displayed in an orderly and sterile glass case.

Daniel Sack

Winner of the Kiefer Scholarship 1991

The 2017 Ingeborg Bachmann Fellowship, established by Anselm Kiefer, is awarded to the artist Yael Frank for her incisive critique and her ability to challenge the social infrastructure that often politicizes death, validating the mechanisms of power and policing historical narratives through the socialization of data.

Yael Frank (born 1982), is a multidisciplinary creator working in video, installation, sound, sculpture, and the creation of immersive environments. Her works engage visitors in situations characterized by disruptions, interruptions, and unresolved distortions. Through these techniques of subversion, Frank’s work reveals the politics embedded in power structures, systems of knowledge, and historical narratives, often leading to uncertainty and exposing the contradictions inherent in existence. This casting of doubt undermines the strong convictions and beliefs that underpin systems of knowledge dissemination and the establishment of cultural, social, gender, and economic canons.

Frank’s work oscillates between cynical realism and a sarcastic post-irony that deconstructs taboo subjects and fearlessly delivers sharp critiques of human existence and the socialization of the culture of death. This culture often serves to reinforce the significant, yet implied, values of societies. For instance, in The Monuments of Monuments (2014), Frank uses the sanctity of death, as depicted in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, as a compositional framework. Here, eleven colossal pink fingers emerge from a wooden surface, replacing the drowning heroes of the colonialist raft en route to Mauritania on July 2, 1816. In another work, the karaoke machine SING ALONG (2013), Frank blends unsettling humor and historical critique: the machine produces “bad luck” as ghostly figures appear behind a screen, accompanied by Chopin’s Funeral March. This march, originally played at the composer’s burial on October 30, 1849, was later adapted as a military march for John F. Kennedy’s funeral on November 25, 1963. A superstitious belief arose that performing the march could lead to the death of loved ones. Frank uses these “problems,” as she calls them, to illuminate the ways beliefs and knowledge shape human experiences of life and death.

In her work Problem (2016–2017), Frank intensifies this critique by presenting medical machines that narrate empty emotional politics and banal catastrophes, displayed in an orderly and sterile glass case.

Karam Natour

Winner of Kiefer Scholarship in – 2020

The 2017 Ingeborg Bachmann Fellowship, established by Anselm Kiefer, is awarded to the artist Yael Frank for her incisive critique and her ability to challenge the social infrastructure that often politicizes death, validating the mechanisms of power and policing historical narratives through the socialization of data.

Yael Frank (born 1982), is a multidisciplinary creator working in video, installation, sound, sculpture, and the creation of immersive environments. Her works engage visitors in situations characterized by disruptions, interruptions, and unresolved distortions. Through these techniques of subversion, Frank’s work reveals the politics embedded in power structures, systems of knowledge, and historical narratives, often leading to uncertainty and exposing the contradictions inherent in existence. This casting of doubt undermines the strong convictions and beliefs that underpin systems of knowledge dissemination and the establishment of cultural, social, gender, and economic canons.

Frank’s work oscillates between cynical realism and a sarcastic post-irony that deconstructs taboo subjects and fearlessly delivers sharp critiques of human existence and the socialization of the culture of death. This culture often serves to reinforce the significant, yet implied, values of societies. For instance, in The Monuments of Monuments (2014), Frank uses the sanctity of death, as depicted in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, as a compositional framework. Here, eleven colossal pink fingers emerge from a wooden surface, replacing the drowning heroes of the colonialist raft en route to Mauritania on July 2, 1816. In another work, the karaoke machine SING ALONG (2013), Frank blends unsettling humor and historical critique: the machine produces “bad luck” as ghostly figures appear behind a screen, accompanied by Chopin’s Funeral March. This march, originally played at the composer’s burial on October 30, 1849, was later adapted as a military march for John F. Kennedy’s funeral on November 25, 1963. A superstitious belief arose that performing the march could lead to the death of loved ones. Frank uses these “problems,” as she calls them, to illuminate the ways beliefs and knowledge shape human experiences of life and death.

In her work Problem (2016–2017), Frank intensifies this critique by presenting medical machines that narrate empty emotional politics and banal catastrophes, displayed in an orderly and sterile glass case.