Exhibitions

Fife Contemporary are pleased to announce Hag. Knowledge, Power & Alchemy through Craft, an upcoming exhibition challenging perceptions of women and craft open at Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries from 8 March to 8 June 2025.

Hag. Knowledge, Power & Alchemy through Craft will open at Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries on 8th March 2025, International Women’s Day.

Free entry, open daily:
Monday – Friday 10am to 5pm (until 6pm Thursdays)
Saturday 10am – 4pm
Sunday 12 – 4pm

Provocatively titled but thoughtfully curated, Hag. will bring together the work of 13 of Scotland’s most inventive, creative and impactful women craft artists, including Lise Bech, Judith Davies, Caroline Dear, Claire Heminsley, Fiona Hutchison, Ruth Elizabeth Jones, Gilly Langton, Jo McDonald, Susie Redman, Patricia Shone, Carol Sinclair, Amanda Simmons and Emma Louise Wilson. Celebrating the knowledge, power & alchemy mediated by their work, the exhibition will celebrate craft skills and approaches to practice developed by these significant women over decades of work and personal endeavour.

The mastery of their own craft skills is what unites these 13 women. Visitors to this exhibition will see pieces brought together from around Scotland. They can expect to see contemporary approaches to constructing forms through tapestry, basket weaving, and work in paper and textile, as well as work formed through transformative material processes such as kiln-firing glass, hand forming clay, or enamelling and silversmithing. The relationship between artist and their close surroundings is also a theme, either as a source of inspiration, or more directly as a source for the materials themselves. 

The exhibition will also feature 13 newly commissioned portraits of the artists in their studios by Scottish photographer, Lydia Smith. Through her thoughtful and personal photographic style, she brings us closer to an understanding of the artists and their practice; making the processes, and the women behind them, visible and better known. 

Curated by Dunfermline-born educator, curator and producer, Kate Pickering, and taking linguistic cues from historical, derogatory language about women, Hag. connects contemporary prejudices about age, sex and gender to their historical precedents.

I’m so excited to be able to bring this exhibition to Dunfermline. The show connects the historical power of craft with the narratives of these remarkable women and reclaims the term “hag” by turning it into a symbol of empowerment. My aim for this exhibition is to show how skill and creativity can transform materials and perceptions alike. – Curator, Kate Pickering

The exhibition will launch on International Women’s Day, Saturday 8th March 2025, with a packed day of events, including conversations between curator Kate Pickering and some of the exhibiting artists, and conversations with invited guest Zoe Venditozzi from the social justice campaign Witches of Scotland. A workshop making a clay Venus led by exhibiting artist Ruth Elizabeth Jones completes the line-up of events.

Find out about the Hag. Exhibition Opening Events here

Find the Hag. Press Release here

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About the Curator: Kate Pickering is a jeweller, educator, and curator whose work centres on the power of craft to foster creativity, community, and empowerment. With a BA in Jewellery and Silversmithing and a Masters of Design from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (DJCAD), Pickering has dedicated over a decade to building creative platforms that inspire makers and bring together diverse voices. Kate has curated exhibitions, worked with cultural institutions like The Scottish Goldsmiths Trust, and developed innovative projects that bridge traditional craft and contemporary dialogue.