Categories, Collections, and a Cabinet of Wonder  

Women and Their Work, Austin, Texas, October-November 1999

Excerpts from the exhibition catalogue essay by Susie Kalil:

Critical Studios Core Program instructor, Glassell School of Art, MFA, Houston, TX.

“There are no limits to what people will collect. We systematically accrue odd cross-sections of everything from matchbooks and gimme caps to carnival sideshow memorabilia and religious reliquaries……

Significantly, Moore regards the work as autobiographical — a site for childhood predilections and interests that have continued into adulthood. She cites numerous and varied influences for this work, ranging from the skeletal studies of horses by George Stubbs as well as texts of Pliny the Elder and engravings by the eighteenth century French naturalist, Buffon, to her vast collections of metal wind-up toys, plastic horses, tiny dolls, and old sock monkeys…..

By blending academic influences with images from popular culture, Moore combines what is universally respected with art world outcasts. She expertly induces the push-pull yearning to be charmed by such nostalgic scenes and at the same time, keeps us guessing about our own reaction, eventually questioning what appeals and why. All in all, Moore trusts in the things and objects she cares about, in the strange material that the sea of daily life washes up, no matter how ephemeral or elusive. The artist rewards the careful viewer by offering up a profound sense of contemplation and wonderment.”