Tom Moore Shortlisted for FUSE GLASS PRIZE

The biennial FUSE Glass Prize was established in 2016 and is open to glass artists living in Australia and New Zealand.  Tom has been shortlisted every time he has entered the prize.  This year he entered a pair of glass bottles, The Party Wizard and Katnest Evergreen.

 

 

Artist statement: I am expanding upon the venerable ancient tradition of making comical representational vessels, in this case figurative bottle/bodies with heads that are removable stoppers.  The visual joke is enhanced in these characters by the addition of faces on both bottle and stopper so they can be perceived as ‘right way up’ or as standing on their enormous heads.  These funny antipodeans walk a fine line between eccentricity and technical rigour.  The works display the serious dedication that is necessary to learn and adapt the astounding practices for making intricately patterned Venetian cane.  The integration of finely detailed lamp-work has been carefully planned and faithfully, fortuitously accomplished!

 

 

These objects are meant to be delightful, but my reason for making them is more than just fun.  I believe there are great possibilities for profundity in absurdity.  I playfully combine human, plant and animal features in the hop of bamboozling conventions of representation and perception.  The ensuing characters are intended to represent ecological ambassadors, reminding us of our deep interconnections within the biological community.

 

 

This exhibition is on in Adelaide at the JamFactory from 13 May-3 July 2022.  It will then travel to Canberra Glassworks 24 August-25 September and the Australian Design Centre from 7 October-16 November 2022.

 

 

“The FUSE Glass Prize provides a platform to encourage artists working in glass to push themselves and their work to new limits and to focus significant public attention on the importance of glass as a medium for contemporary artistic expression.

Australian and New Zealand artists have established a global reputation for technical innovation and daring creativity in glass.  The high calibre and broad range of formal, technical and conceptual approaches represented in the work of the 18 finalist this year continues to provide strong evidence of the strength of the practice in our region.” 

Fuse Catalogue 2022.

 

 

Congratulations to Matthew Curtis who won the Established Artist Prize and Bronte Cormican-Jones who won the David Henshall Emerging Artist Prize.

Exhibition installation photos: Connor Patterson

Studio photos: Grant Hancock