"Radcliffe is both engineer and artist. His work focuses on the beauty of hand making something, crafting it from scratch, and the resulting fetishisation of this practice.
His work looks at transport and engineering in contemporary culture, and gently comments on current trends and obsessions.
For this show, Radcliffe has constructed a 2:1 bike frame: A perfectly finished hand built track frame stands clamped to stand with a concrete base. Made from scaffolding tubes, gas pipes and two steel railway bolts, this beautifully made and car body fillered plus size model plays on the viewers’ expectations of, and reactions to, the impossible scale of the object.
The frame has been covered with layers of different coloured paint and then sanded and re-sanded exposing and creating an effect reminiscent of science, radioactive waste and cinematic science fiction.
Radcliffe’s second piece is a bike with a motor. Again, the frame is hand built and bespoke to allow for the PW Yamaha 80cc donor engine.
With help from Edward James, the steel frame has been handcrafted and exquisitely engineered, whilst also being made physically tough enough to accommodate a mini motorbike engine.
With wheels and tyres from a downhill mountain bike added, the result is a low slung cruiser, with a style similar to early American board track racers.
Radcliffe’s pieces are experiments. His work explores the area where play meets skilled engineer/maker, and hobby becomes obsession. His boyish inquisitiveness paired with a knowledge of 1920s motor/ bike collaborations drove him to make an object - an immaculately constructed machine - that he could ‘play’ with.
This frivolity is then combined with a strong understanding of materials, engineering and the history of transport. And the result is a practice that marries craftsman and high design with childlike fantasist and garden shed hobbyist."
Hannah Hooks 2010
