Series DW 1967

These modular ventilation shafts, like a cardboard construction kit for grown-ups, were designed by Charlotte Posenenske. She’s playing with industrial materials, taking them away from the factory and putting them in the gallery. The color of the piece is that cardboardy brown, which is not really a color, right? It’s more of an absence of color, like a raw, unedited form. The surface has a slight sheen, but otherwise it’s rough and matte. You can almost smell the factory floor, and you can see the joins where the pieces fit together, with nuts and bolts left exposed. The piece feels temporary, like a prototype, even though it's a finished artwork. It makes me think of early minimalist sculptors like Donald Judd, who were interested in simple geometric forms and industrial materials, but Posenenske's piece has a playfulness and a DIY sensibility that reminds me more of someone like Franz West. It’s like she’s saying, "art can be made out of anything, even cardboard ventilation shafts." And who knows, maybe they actually ventilate the space and keep the air flowing.