FUNCTION OF TOOLE
Function of Toole is a prototype solution to a fool's problem, that of using molten iron for performance art. This systemic sculpture evolved in conjunction with Matt Toole's Ferromatic Machine through a series of cast iron performances and experiments.
These collaborations inspired numerous visually stunning works, including Toole's Ferruginous Pyre: An Iron Opus and Marsh's Saturday Night Ferro: Drewhenge, for which the device was employed. It functions as a working base and platform to raise a cupola-style iron furnace four feet high and reduce heat loss through direct iron transfer between performance machines. Drawings and prints made concurrent to its construction and use reveal fabrication details and derivative imagery from performances as well as Function of Toole's configuration in a larger timepiece design.
At the conclusion of Marsh and Toole's spirited collaborations, its context as a performance device was made obsolete. The iron furnace was taken away and the work platform sculpture installed in Scar Garden, where visitors can explore and create their own context for its purpose, meaning, and their own new scars.
Check out Matt Toole at TOOLE SCULPTURE WORKS!
SCAR GARDEN
Scar Garden is an earthwork and installation of Marsh's sculpture and performance device Function of Toole at Josephine Sculpture Park in Frankfort, Kentucky.
The earthwork site is inspired from a tectonic shift of the ground plane corresponding to a ruptured intervertebral disc. The resulting series of insults and injuries were executed in a grueling 14-day ordeal and are depicted in hand laid native limestone and plantings of Pyrocantha coccinea, the Scarlet Firethorn.
The device is located at the center of the earthen disruption, which is now a welcoming home to an ecosystem of indigenous flora and fauna of ill repute, including poison ivy, snakes, spiders, and giant wasps!
Explore Josephine Sculpture Park!
