You’ll never walk alone

I was the first female artist to become part of the male-dominated medal collection of the Humboldt University of Berlin. Until now, the physicist Lise Meitner was the only woman to be honored with a medal for her scientific achievements in 2014. To give Meitner female company in the collection, I had a bronze medal made with my likeness and name and donated it to the “Humboldt University of Berlin” for the 200th anniversary of the exhibition of the “small Humboldt Gallery”.

With this subversive act, I undermined the usual power structures and pointed out the imbalance in the representation of women and men in the collection.

The inscription on the reverse of the medal reads:

“To give Lise Meitner female company in the medal collection of the Humboldt University of Berlin Hannah Cooke created this medal. A gift from the artist Hannah Cooke for the 200th exhibition of the small Humboldt Gallery.

(Statement of the artist about the work)