About the Artist:
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Baltimore-based artist Chris Bathgate is a self-trained machinist. He utilizes handmade tools and automated CNC (computer numerical control) milling and drilling machines to create precisely-crafted elements that assemble into complex sculptures. Machining is his method of artistic expression. He has spent more than fifteen years adapting metalworking machinery from salvaged and repurposed equipment. Bathgate’s aesthetic considerations stem from the very machines that he uses to create his sculptures. Each piece that he makes is informed by the one it is preceded by, and he modifies his machinery accordingly—not for improved practical function but for the aesthetic developments that can be produced.
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Bathgate is unique in his formalist approach to precision machining as an art form. His entire body of work is an ongoing investigation into this concept. Process lies at the heart of his practice and it serves as the primary catalyst for his ideas. He evaluates his sculptures for form and visual composition in a continuous cycle of ideation, problem solving, fabrication, analysis, and revision, similar to systems engineering. Bathgate’s carefully composed technical diagrams are evidence of his gestaltist outlook in which the whole may be deconstructed into its elements.
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Playing with the tension between aesthetic vs. utility, form vs. function, and industrial vs. handmade, Bathgate’s interdisciplinary work lies at the intersection of art, craft, and design. It serves as an example of how computer-mediated fabrication may bridge the divide between art, craft, and industrial production in the Digital Age.
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Written by Curator Ron Labaco
How the work is made:
Below is a detailed slide show that illustrates the many techniques and processes used to create just one of my machined metal works.
Hit the little auto play button on the lower right of the viewer or scroll through manually to read each text (May not display on some mobile devices)
OK these are copper cores out of a Linear Accelerator used in cancer radiation therapy machines. My very thoughtful and generous uncle who happens to work for a company that builds them, retrieves these from the scrap bin and sends them to me from time to time. They are made of an oxygen free copper alloy that when finished, produces a beautiful orange surface that just cannot be achieved with regular copper alloys as it tends to brown when heated. I could never source this material on my own. I
Just another shot of the cores out of the linear accelerator, they are really interesting looking all by themselves. Its kind of a shame I have to chop them up.
all of the lashing removed, here is one final shot of me with the finished piece to give a sense of scale.. all in all it was a twelve week process and total labor time came in at 303 hours from start to finish.
OK these are copper cores out of a Linear Accelerator used in cancer radiation therapy machines. My very thoughtful and generous uncle who happens to work for a company that builds them, retrieves these from the scrap bin and sends them to me from time to time. They are made of an oxygen free copper alloy that when finished, produces a beautiful orange surface that just cannot be achieved with regular copper alloys as it tends to brown when heated. I could never source this material on my own. I