September 6 - October 18 2012 

Clint Imboden is both a scavenger and an archaeologist. He finds things and then finds meaning in, and between, these objects. He understands that what looks like a joke, a pun, is actually a deconstruction of complicated ideas that then rearrange themselves into an alternate meaning. A fleeting flicker of liquid mercury hovers within a test tube, a glass eyeball is held by a pair of forceps, everything nestled within the confines of a box approximately the size of a small brick. A pair of false teeth brackets another glass eyeball, teeth are missing from the upper plate and I begin to form an image of the box as a personality. The work by its very nature is nostalgic, and I can’t but help think of the nineteenth century “Freak Show.” The elements that force the work into being; the false teeth, the bullets, the playing cards, forceps, test-tubes, name tags, tools, poker chips – an infinite cache of debris -  are the lost relics of life lived in the past. It is, however, the manner in which Clint Imboden presents these fractured, almost schizophrenic stories that makes the work so contemporary.The cheese boxes make the case that understanding subject isn’t fixed. Even the elements within each box seem to float, Imboden as an artist has the ability to seamlessly integrate disparate objects within the same space without it seeming forced. He’s a master bricoleur in that respect and this allows the work to speak for itself beyond any distraction of manufacture. Slipping between texts, meaning is located as the cheese boxes cross reference each other giving a clearer picture of both the idea of constructing an identity and, perhaps, the identity of the artist.

By Jacqueline Cooper