"Everything within my work means something"

Catriona Faulkner's bold and vivid artwork has been a mainstay of Medway Open Studios, and she is a key part of Mess Room Creatives. Ahead of their next exhibition, Steven met her at the Deaf Cat in Rochester, where they spoke about the accident that changed Catriona's life and art, whether she will join the Green Party, Frida Kahlo, and exactly what assemblage is.

What is your official occupation? 
I'm an artist. 

Do you have any other additional roles, paid or unpaid? 
I'm in a few different textile organisations that put exhibitions on. I'm now involved with the Mess Room. The rest of my time really is my business.

What is your business? 
I am hand stitch assemblage artist. That's the easiest way I've ever found to explain it. Technically, I've invented what I do. That's why it's quite difficult to explain. Basically, I collect objects and I hand stitch them into what I would call a shrine. My work is inspired by... I was brought up Irish Catholic. My mum's Irish Catholic. Lots of time in churches, taught by nuns. Catholicism is very opulent and very visual. I think all of that soaked into me as a kid.
My main subjects around my work are to do with chronic pain. I had an accident 25 years ago. Cut my fingers off. That's led to lots of different things. So...

Sorry, do you mind elaborating on what sort of accident when you lost your fingers? 
I'd just left university. I did a textile degree. I was working as a freelance textile designer. Any fabric you ever see is always designed by someone. I was doing that during the day, and I took an evening job in a factory packing Pro Plus. The machine turned itself on, pulled me in, and took two fingers. That sounds quite simple, but it led to lots of things. I've lost the hearing in this ear. Everything that's wrong with me is all connected to that moment. Which would be daily migraines, kidney problems, bladder problems, stomach problems from medication. 
When you're looking at my work, you might think it's opulent and rich and beautiful. If you get a little bit closer, within there, you might see pins and needles. I constantly have pins and needles, it never goes away. I use lots of metaphors about things. Tea strainers. Tea strainers are kidneys because kidneys filter. I've got kidney problems because of medication. Everything within my work means something. As a viewer, you might not know any of that stuff. That's completely fine.
Frida Kahlo pops up quite a lot. It's not just what Frida looks like, it's because Frida had chronic pain after an accident. I'm really interested in how you live with chronic pain and filter that into being creative. That's really what it's about. 
Amongst all that, there's different branches to my business. When people pass away, I do a lot of memorial work. Their family might give me their stuff, we have a chat about them, and then I make something so they can put all their earrings and all these bits and pieces that people get left behind. I do quite a lot of work like that.

What is assemblage? 
It's the only way I've found at the moment to describe why objects are really important. And people try and rip me off all the time. They do not understand.

I'm really interested in how you live with chronic pain and filter that into being creative

When you say rip you off, do you mean copy what you do? 
Yeah, try and copy what I do. But they might be putting a kidney tablet near a migraine tablet! There's a language!  That's offensive to me. You're not understanding what I do. I had a little accident last year. This is my good hand. I stabbed my finger with a scalpel and severed a nerve.  Fixed it, blah blah blah. I've had 19 hand surgeries. This is my first one on this hand. So, I'm trying to process scalpel blades.
Then I went to Barcelona. Twice. I had to go twice. Top of the churches in Barcelona are the most beautiful twisty-looking stars. Mary has 12 stars around her head because of the apostles. There are always these things going on. I've been making stars from scalpel blades. You might look at it and say, “That's what has just injured me.” There's always a process. It can't just be random. I suppose that's the thing that for someone, and if that's how they're perceiving it, that's fine. But for some people, they will look at it, and it will look random because they don't know the story, they don't know the connections, they don't know the process that's gone into where these items have come from and why they've been included, and why they're important. Sometimes it's a tricky old thing what I do, because I've got quite bad PTSD, because I had a horrible accident and I've been operated on when aesthetic wore off and things like that. There have been traumatic things. I might be showing my work, and it's really good for me to empty that into my work, but then people want to tell me the scary story, and people can get upset when I tell them what it's about. Then I make them feel bad. So, I just tell them the headlines. It's this cautionary thing. I've now started to put up a little information sheet about me with my work, which is the hope to stop traumatising people.