Posenenske’s Square Tubes (Vierkantrohre) represent one of the most philosophically rigorous positions taken within the German Minimalism of the late 1960s. Its counterpart, also in the Aardt Foundation Collection, is made of hot-dip galvanized sheet steel. This version is made of corrugated cardboard, the most economical and disposable of industrial materials, and fastened with plastic screws. The series is explicitly designed to be reconfigured by installers and viewers; no arrangement is definitive. Posenenske stated that she wanted to make art that was neither elitist nor permanent, a position she ultimately took to its logical conclusion by abandoning art for work as a labor sociologist. The date attribution 1967/2015 reflects the posthumous authorization of new fabrications of a potentially unlimited edition under the terms established before her death.
