THE BELL CURVE
Australian Centre for Contemporary Art
ACCA NEW13 2013

From catalogue essay by Helen Hughes:
‘The Bell Curve‘ (2013) reprises this archaeological approach to modern art to explore the nexus between the perception and representation of reality, a concern at the core of Mestrom’s practice. By focusing on the muted still lifes of 20th-century Italian artist Giorgio Morandi and on Picasso’s iconic 1937 painting Weeping Woman, The Bell Curve draws a parallactic arc between these two major figures — both of whom approach the same theme of describing reality, though via wildly different pictorial languages. The Bell Curve establishes and then tests the tension between these two practices. It comprises five sculptural ceramic compositions based on Morandi still lifes and a towering, 3.5-metre-tall aluminium water fountain sculpture that spills tears from a large bronze eyeball, based on Picasso’s violently fragmented and ill-hued painting of Dora Maar.

NEW13 ACCA Info Education Kit
Catalogue essay by Helen Hughes
Catalogue essay by Nikos Pantazopoulos
NEW13 PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Article ‘New Media Makes its Mark’ – AFR 21.03.2013
Article ‘New13’ Time Out