Katherine Hattam

The pinch 2022
woodblock; edition 4/15
printed by Martin King and Simon White
Courtesy of the artist and Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne/Naarm

Artist statement:

I must remind myself of the origins of my print titled The pinch. Perhaps this is because though that first image is so particular: of my mother leaning over the pram overlooking her children and one outlier, a friend. At the centre is the new baby; my brother ten years younger. We all touch him, other than the friend who secretly pinched my sister’s arm. That pinch speaks of all our ambivalence, intense love, and jealousy. He is the focus, getting all the attention.

The starting point was a tiny black and white photograph sent to me by that childhood friend clearing up after her own mother’s death. I enlarged and cropped the image, leaving only our arms and that pinch all centred around the mother and new baby. I found myself thinking it was me as mother and my children, so that very particular image has general reach.