TheCity.ie’s Gemma Kavanagh sat down with Galway fashion designer Sabrina Fallon to talk about her latest design and inspiration.

Having lost someone special to addiction, Sabrina Fallon was inspired to create a piece of work to help raise awareness of addiction. “I believe it is a disease and I felt it was very misunderstood at the time.”

Looking to break the stigma attached to the topic she wanted to create awareness for the younger generation about what is going on with addiction in our country today.

Her creation is eye catching and drew people in from all over the room. “This installation is 2,000 stitches made from hospital bedsheets and I knitted with the crutches as a metaphor that alcohol is a crutch. I wanted to make it really big so as to grab people’s attention.”

Conducting interviews with alcoholics and people in recovery, Sabina examined the most common words used by alcoholics. Many said they had no hope and felt lost, like they had a void and a hole in the soul.

“Everything I did was taken from something someone said, when I was creating this one of the addiction councillors told me that alcoholism was tearing the fabric of society apart which is family. I left a box in a social area and I asked the question what do you think an alcoholic is in your own words, and some people said it is someone who is very lonely. Some of the comments were very negative, ‘somebody who is selfish’ that stemmed from people’s own experience their own stories with people with addiction such as alcoholic parents.”

The person featured in the installation is curled up in the foetal position on the edge of the material and was made with chicken wire. The artist wanted to create a vulnerable image of a person struggling with addiction.

Sabrina also created eleven dresses made from hospital sheets to symbolise the one in eleven children who are directly affected by alcoholic related issues in the country. “At the moment I’m travelling to schools and trying to create awareness and give the children food for thought because it is pretty scary what’s going on. I’m not interested in making money off it at the moment that’s not what this is about its about creating awareness and someday it’ll find a resting place but my main priority is to spread the message.”