Claire Heminsley in her Fife studio | Photography © Lydia Smith
Claire Heminsley
Artist & Designer
Claire Heminsley’s work connects deeply with the idea of the “hag” by celebrating the rebellious, empowered women who defied the odds. Her aprons not only challenge stereotypes around older women but also embody strength, resilience, and the spirit of activism, claiming the word “hag” as a symbol of defiance and wisdom.
Made using native plants and simple weaving skills, Dear’s works are contemporary Inspired by the women who seized control of the Greenock Lee Jeans Factory in 1981, Heminsley has dedicated the past few years to researching workwear and aprons. She views these women as fabulously strong “Hags”, embracing the determination and outspoken rebelliousness the word evokes.
These were “women who did not take any shit!” and were ultimately successful in stopping the Greenock factory closure. To Heminsley, they were rebellious women wearing rebellious aprons.
The five aprons play with Hag words -Haggage, Haggish, Hagdom – and acknowledge the positive traits of being an older woman; wisdom, experience, being both visible and invisible, empowerment, resilience, joyousness, being spirited, not toeing the line, and becoming the person we were meant to be.
The aprons are made using combinations of paper, gouache, stitch, cloth and cut-outs.
Biography
Claire Heminsley studied textiles at the Glasgow School of Art, before setting up her own studio INCAHOOTS in 1986, expanding her work to include illustration. Heminsley works with a broad range of media and consequently has a diverse output, from detailed scraperboard prints to more experimental sculptural and mixed media pieces.
Since opening her studio, Heminsley has worked on a wide range of commissions, exhibitions and projects. Alongside this she has taught design, textiles and illustration in further and higher education and for workshops throughout Scotland. In 2021 she was awarded a Creative Scotland Open Fund award for a research project ‘Almost a map, Almost a word’, the results of which continue to inform her work.
Heminsley is the chair of Off the Rails Arthouse in Ladybank, an art space offering a wide range of arts activities.