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“Art off the Air: Matt Toole's upcycle art focuses on the simple and elegant” - Entertainment & Life - DoSavannah - Savannah, GA. 10/14/2019

By Rob Hessler / For Do Savannah

Matt Toole is a big man.

He’s a former football player, and he spends his time working with molten metal

and banging a hammer on an anvil. He wore a dirty black Thin Lizzy shirt to our

interview, and our handshake upon first meeting was strong and decisive.

But his imposing physicality stands in contrast to the almost philosophical way that

he approaches his artwork. His found object sculptural style utilizes a technique

called upcycling, a term used to describe the transformation of waste into

something of better quality or environmental value.

“Instead of recycling and putting back into the collective to serve another purpose

than what it had previously,” Toole explained on the most recent episode of “Art on

the Air,” “upcycling is elevating its status in some way. My purpose is to breath new

life into it, make it into a new thing, bring it to its next level.”

Now in his late 40s, Toole has spent a lifetime gathering these components for his

pieces.

“I grew up playing in the salt marsh and discovering the types of materials that are

around. We had a garage that was filled floor to ceiling with stuff. Subsequently I

still collect stuff. There’s a beauty and an aesthetic value in things that are

manufactured. A designer has some role in almost everything we make. Your

glasses, that turntable, the microphone, our lighting.”

So how does Toole decide how this stuff fits together to create an object of beauty?

“I want things to be simple and elegant and have unification with the disparate

parts that I find. I want them to blend together to be one unified object. I want to

see it dance and move. Even if they’re static, I build them in a manner that makes

Entertainment & Life

10/14/2019 Art off the Air: Matt Toole's upcycle art focuses on the simple and elegant - Entertainment & Life - DoSavannah - Savannah, GA

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them dynamic, so they have implied movement.”

This playful, almost spiritual energy pervades the works in his current exhibition of

sculptures at Gallery F.A.R. (Fine Art of Recycling). But that doesn’t mean that

there isn’t something beyond their visual elegance. In fact, the underlying

environmentalism of his process is something that Toole thinks about often, even

if he doesn’t make the message overt.

“A big part of what I do is I look at our environment and how we live as humans,”

he said. “And I know that by our very existence we create, we destroy, we pollute,

we do all these things. I’m trying to find ways to enhance and extend and build

upon our lives while here. I don’t have deep political agendas in my artwork. I

didn’t think my artwork was necessarily the vehicle to scream these things. But I do

think it’s important to scream about how we use our resources and how we

conserve our resources. So this is a perfect match with the RC (Chatham County

Resource Conservation Education Center).”

The exhibit opens Sept. 6 at Gallery F.A.R and will be up until Nov. 19. Toole

recognizes that as the pieces remain out in the elements, there’s a good chance that

they may change. In fact, most of the parts that he used to construct them had

already begun to deteriorate in one way or another before he even put them

together.

“I like the idea of working with the element of time, so that things continually

change. They move; they build up; they break down. I can see works of art that

never end. They just perpetually grow and grow.”

But more than just liking the idea, Toole has embraced the concept as a critical part

of the way he works.

“Sometimes I’m along for the ride. I’m not driving the whole time. We don’t always

have to know.”

Philosopher indeed.