Artists statement

Katherine Hattam is an established Australian artist who attended the University of Melbourne and the Victorian College of the Arts where she studied painting. Hattam’s work encompasses themes of feminism, domesticity, time, autobiography and psychology.

Doctor’s Dilemma, Mark II, 2007 is a strong representation of Hattam’s interest in landscape painting, collage, literature, feminism, psycho-analysis and post-modern critical thinking. Featuring disassembled medical and psychology books removed from her family’s library and other sources, floating medical instruments and interior domestic elements, the title of this work refers to an early twentieth century play by Bernard Shaw of the same name. It centres on the moral dilemma a doctor faces when triaging who receives life-saving medicine and the economic realities of a medical life. In this way, Doctor’s Dilemma, Mark II can be viewed as an autobiographical account of growing up as the daughter of a doctor who eventually left the medical world in pursuit of the art world.

Hattam has strong ties with Stonnington, having grown up in South Yarra and attended school in Toorak. Hattam’s son, William McKinnon, is also an artist and is represented in the Stonnington Art Collection.