Ad-hoc Trajectories as seen through the glass of the Fifty Fifty Art Collective. Photo © by Hailey Finnigan.

Dallas V. Duobaitis is a young and exciting visual artist. At the Fifty Fifty Arts Collective, Duobaitis recently showed his installation, “Ad-Hoc Trajectories,” to the delight of the visual arts community.

The gallery was filled to the brim with coffee stir sticks, hot glue and string. Although at first glance, the materials are not what one might expect to see in an art gallery, but they have been built into bridges, trellises, staircases and handrails; a miniature infrastructure climbs towards the ceiling of the gallery.

However, these recognizable features seem supported by rather unstable and precarious columns. Looking at the structure the viewer can’t help but feel curious albeit cautious.

These labour-intensive installations first came to be in 2008, during Duobaitis’ graduating year in the visual arts program at the University of Victoria. He made an assemblage out of small pieces of wood that included a miniature staircase.  Upon seeing the creation, his peers told him to “get rid of that crap in the middle” and keep the staircase. Duobaitis was inspired by the feedback and the result was a wooden staircase that grew and grew until he’d met his match by scaling up to the studio’s 20 foot ceiling.

Not satisfied with showing the piece at the university, Duobaitis approached the Fifty Fifty Arts Collective.  He explained that he wanted a space with more debris, that the structures needed something to grab on to. “I wanted the structure to tie every aspect of the gallery together. It would connect all of these things in the gallery that you’d normally avoid or wouldn’t notice, and makes them part of the work,” he described.  The orderly walkways and bridges would up supported by a chaotic web of wood and glue, spreading over the venue’s lighting grids, air vents, and ledges.

When asked about the types of materials chosen, Duobaitis remarked that the stir sticks are “completely utilitarian and fickle – you can take anything like that and make something epic out of something so miniscule. You just have to treat it right, have enough of it, and use it to its full potential.” Upon hearing that some individuals found the use of stir sticks unexpected or unusual, Duobaitis stated that people “overlook these things, but really they are just as useful as paint or plywood. It’s just like Red Green says, ‘any tool can be the right tool.’”

Duobaitis expressed an interest in doing more work like this in the future, exploring the ideas of structural order and chaos. He will likely stick to wood, as he has developed an affinity for the material.

The public can preview Duobaitis’ work on his website located at duobaitis.ca/dallas.

Hailey Finnigan is the author of phART, a Victoria-based arts blog.

Ad-hoc Trajectories. Photo © by Hailey Finnigan.

Ad-hoc Trajectories. Photo © by Hailey Finnigan.

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