Katherine Hattam

Katherine Hattam
Australian, born 1950; lives and works in Naarm/Melbourne

Mother Country 2022
charcoal, book pages and gouache on paper
Courtesy of the artist and Daine Singer, Naarm/Melbourne

 Artist statement:

Mother Country is, as the title suggests, a work about Australia but also about mothers. While making this picture wood block prints emerged of a mother and child—my mother and my 6-month-old brother—a version is included on the side wall next to the Nolan wallpaper. The inclusion of Hokusai’s wave pays homage to the original but also represents waves of the Coronavirus and those of feminism. During COVID the strangeness of my mother country, Australia, being an island was highlighted for me and made its way into this work.