And Then It All Came Spilling Out - Revisited
Dublin Core
Title
And Then It All Came Spilling Out - Revisited
Description
This mangled wrought table base was part of the debris left inside Marquee, in the River Arts District, after the floodwaters receded.
For weeks after the storm, we went to RAD to wander inside Marquee and out, searching for my art and for items from our booth, MacDonald Forge + Design.
At 10 months after the storm, the twisted table base was still sitting at Marquee, now outside next to a dumpster. I had an impulse to claim it and turn it into a "Hurricane Helene" sculpture of some sort. So, I loaded it into my truck and drove it back to my studio. This impulse was very important because I had not felt any real creative spark since the storm.
I decided to work with the form just as I found it, just as it had been mangled by the flow of the floodwaters carrying an seeming endless volume of debris.
For the table "top" I used perforated steel which once covered part of the walls of our booth at Marquee. I found it after the storm, across the Foundy Street parking lot where the contents of Marquee came spilling out once the floodwaters breached the walls of the building.
The pieces of broken pottery made by Mike Hamlin of Hamlin Ceramics, were found in the debris field and mud. Some were still in our booth, caught and tangled in a large rug which was in the booth. Some were found across the parking area.
I placed the ceramic pieces precariously, some hanging off the table in mid-air some fallen and broken on the floor below. I was hoping to capture the moments when the the place(s) and when so many of us were overtaken/overwhelmed by the impacts of Helene.
Regarding my choice of title, I'd like to offer a bit of context. I make my main living as a psychotherapist, specializing in the treatment of Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Many of my art pieces are created to reflect/represent trauma and its aftermath.
In 2018 I created a piece about Complex-PTSD which I titled "And Then It All Came Spilling Out". The piece was about the internal pressure many survivors of trauma feel and how at certain times their ability to contain that pressure is overwhelmed. When that happens, they are often overtaken and "flooded" with intense thoughts, recollections and emotions related to their trauma.
I hope it seems relevant, that our collective, overwhelming experience of Hurricane Helene and the widespread flooding damage might be represented in a small way but this new sculpture, made from the recovered debris which literally came spilling out after Marquee was overwhelmed by the flood.
For weeks after the storm, we went to RAD to wander inside Marquee and out, searching for my art and for items from our booth, MacDonald Forge + Design.
At 10 months after the storm, the twisted table base was still sitting at Marquee, now outside next to a dumpster. I had an impulse to claim it and turn it into a "Hurricane Helene" sculpture of some sort. So, I loaded it into my truck and drove it back to my studio. This impulse was very important because I had not felt any real creative spark since the storm.
I decided to work with the form just as I found it, just as it had been mangled by the flow of the floodwaters carrying an seeming endless volume of debris.
For the table "top" I used perforated steel which once covered part of the walls of our booth at Marquee. I found it after the storm, across the Foundy Street parking lot where the contents of Marquee came spilling out once the floodwaters breached the walls of the building.
The pieces of broken pottery made by Mike Hamlin of Hamlin Ceramics, were found in the debris field and mud. Some were still in our booth, caught and tangled in a large rug which was in the booth. Some were found across the parking area.
I placed the ceramic pieces precariously, some hanging off the table in mid-air some fallen and broken on the floor below. I was hoping to capture the moments when the the place(s) and when so many of us were overtaken/overwhelmed by the impacts of Helene.
Regarding my choice of title, I'd like to offer a bit of context. I make my main living as a psychotherapist, specializing in the treatment of Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Many of my art pieces are created to reflect/represent trauma and its aftermath.
In 2018 I created a piece about Complex-PTSD which I titled "And Then It All Came Spilling Out". The piece was about the internal pressure many survivors of trauma feel and how at certain times their ability to contain that pressure is overwhelmed. When that happens, they are often overtaken and "flooded" with intense thoughts, recollections and emotions related to their trauma.
I hope it seems relevant, that our collective, overwhelming experience of Hurricane Helene and the widespread flooding damage might be represented in a small way but this new sculpture, made from the recovered debris which literally came spilling out after Marquee was overwhelmed by the flood.
Creator
Date
Format
Medium
Found/Reclaimed objects, formed steel sheet, baling wire, monofilament line
Still Image Item Type Metadata
Original Format
Sculpture
Collection
Citation
Dave MacDonald, “And Then It All Came Spilling Out - Revisited,” Come Hell or High Water Community Memory Project, accessed November 14, 2025, https://helenehistory.omeka.net/items/show/1307.