Timepiece Mythos is an interactive sculpture by Dane Winkler constructed entirely out of materials from a dismantled 100-plus year-old barn. Winkler disassembled the barn on its original site in Ramseur, North Carolina and transformed the century-old materials into a new structure. This new structure takes a familiar, barn-like form, but is shaped into a semi-circle, creating a passageway with entrances on either end. The work acts as a kind of portal, asking viewers to both imagine the history of the materials used and the potential for transformation that the new structure represents.

In creating the work, Winkler was inspired by origin stories and flood narratives, including the story of Noah’s Ark. Poet Ocean Vuong has imagined the level of pressure attached to Noah’s task: “What an incredible mythos to work and live by, which is that when the apocalypse comes, what will you put into the vessel for the future?”. Timepiece Mythos suggests that, while we cannot simply discard materials from our past, we might be able to transform them into a vessel that can carry us into the future.

About the Artist

Dane Winkler is currently an Assistant Professor of Sculpture at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.  He grew up on a small farm in upstate New York where he learned about animal husbandry, craftsmanship, and hard work. His artwork often harkens back to peculiar memories from his childhood on the farm, in conversation with his surroundings. He received his BFA from the State University of New York College at Plattsburgh in 2012 and his MFA at the University of Maryland, College Park in 2016.  His work has been exhibited nationally in solo and group exhibitions including at Rosalux Gallery (Minneapolis, MN), Socrates Sculpture Park (Queens, NY), Hamiltonian Gallery (Washington, DC), and the Delaware Contemporary Art Museum (Wilmington, DE) among many other venues.  He has received many grants and awards, notably; The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2017-18, an Emergency Grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Art in 2015, and a Forecast Public Arts Planning Grant in 2013.