Tom Moore creates beautiful award-winning glass sculptures with a unique approach. “His animal-shaped transparent bell jars are almost a metre tall and require two skilled assistants to help with the glassblowing.



Inside the domes – and working in all kinds of coloured glass shapes – Moore presents fantastical, hybrid zoological creatures inspired by the faked mythical animals of mediaeval cabinets of curiosity.” History Repeated: glass by Ruth Allen, Gabriella Bisetto, Joanna Bone, Lisa Cahill, Scott Chaseling, Mel Douglas, Ben Edols and Kathy Elliott, Judi Elliott, Mark Eliott-McFoggarty, Jeremy Lepisto, Nikki Main, Jenni Kemarre Martiniello, Peter Minson, Tom Moore, Peter Nilsson, Kirstie Rea, Paddy Robinson, Tom Rowney, Luna Ryan, Harriet Schwarzrock, Belinda Toll, Nick Wirdnam. Code X: Contemporary Fine Binding. An exhibition of books by Australian and international artists. Craft ACT: Craft and Design centre. On until March 25.



Curator Mel George had a broad vision for the concept of this exhibition that encompassed both the United States and Australia. It involves a creative link between eminent local glass artists and the Corning Museum of Glass in New York.



Corning Museum
George is very familiar with the Corning Museum as she spent time there in 2014 as an instructor in the museum's glass studio. Each of the glass artists was linked by George to a glass artefact she had chosen from the museum's historic collection – objects in styles of glass that seemed to be in tune with each artist's own creative practice and could be an inspiration for a new work.



When we look at Tom Moore’s work, the title of this exhibition watching glass grow also seems absurd. It is only Moore and his assistants (and other glass blowers) who witness anything close to resembling growth during the process of making and creating his creatures. With watching glass grow, Moore looks at the world, creates an alternate civilisation of plant-animal-machines that tells us a story that is both cautionary and optimistic. People have damaged the planet. Nature has the answers. When we question what we see in watching glass grow, we don’t need our eyes checked – Tom Moore has 20/20 vision. Tony Kanellos, Cultural Collections Manager & Curator of the Santos Museum of Economic Botany, Adelaide Botanic Garden watching glass grow by Tom Moore Exhibiting until Sunday, May 15 as part of the 2016 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art Santos Museum of Economic Botany, Adelaide