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terrain November/December 2020

field notes

TW CARBON FINDS NEW HOME

TW Carbon has a new, larger home for its carbon- fiber bike frame repair and custom paint business thanks to St. Louis' cycling community and Billy Goat Bicycle Co. Earlier this year, owner Nick Hand found himself laid off from his full-time job due to COVID-19. Rather than dwell on unfortunate circumstances, he saw an opportunity to follow his passion. "I focused on TW Carbon more and quickly realized I needed to build it into a full- time business, because I enjoy the work so much," Hand explained. "And, to do so, I needed a larger workspace." He asked the St. Louis bike community if anyone had dealt with real estate. "Someone mentioned that Dirk [Sprogoe] at Billy Goat Bicycle was looking to rent out a portion of the shop," Hand said. "I met with Dirk, checked out the space, and explained my vision for TW Carbon. He explained his ideas for the future of Billy Goat and the cycling community." Hand spent June transforming 1,200 square feet of Billy Goat's space into his own shop. It has a separate entrance and dedicated areas to sand and repair carbon fiber, as well as a dedicated paint booth with a specially designed exhaust system. There's also a dust-free drying room, office, and a shop area to disassemble and rebuild bikes. You can visit TW Carbon at 10211 Manchester Road B, next to Billy Goat Bicycles in Kirkwood, or online at twcarbon.com. -Nick Brennan

STEPPING THROUGH TIME

It's not every day you get to explore a surreal, space-age landscape without leaving St. Louis County. The new Van McElwee: Time Fork exhibit at Laumeier Sculpture Park in Sunset Hills takes visitors through imagined structures placed virtually within the physical landscape and accessed via a free mobile app. The project, organized as a walking tour of the park viewed through the lens of technology, imagines what might have happened if time branched 1,000 years ago to create a parallel world. In McElwee's installation, he uses augmented reality to reveal a settlement that exists in that parallel or future world, overlapping what we know as Laumeier Sculpture Park. "We see structures that could be under construction or in ruins; they could have a ritual, municipal, or even industrial function," said McElwee, a St. Louis multi- media artist. "Using phones or tablets as windows, viewers can explore these mysteries, inside and out." Time Fork is just one component of Laumeier's thematic Art & Global Change exhibit, which runs through 2021.

Van McElwee: Time Fork ; digital sketch for AR application. ( VAN MCELWEE)