A solo exhibition by Lilly Otašević

July 17 – August 9, 2013
Artist Statement:
In my new sculptural construct I am exploring the relationship bet-
ween the old and the new in the constant “cycle of change”. I use
reclaimed bricks from demolished old houses in the Toronto area to
build structures that evoke memories. Once – they were homes that
were an essential part of people’s lives. Within the walls – laughter,
cries, or a whisper may be heard. Now – demolished – they are an
amorphous echo of the past.
My working with reclaimed bricks represents a sense of “lost ground”
so present in people who lost their homes to unforeseen circumstances;
or were one way or another forced to leave their homes in search of a
better life. On a personal level, the bricks symbolize security, intimate
space, childhood home, and a sense of belonging that all of us, who
left our home-countries, try to re-create wherever we are in the world.
In my sculptural installations I try to re-construct those intimate,
personal feelings. At the same time the sculptures represent fortifi-
cations, walls, barricades and borders that were frequently the reason
for unnecessary division, and conflicts between people.
On a social level, the used reclaimed bricks remind us of fragility
and impermanence of people and places – of the things one calls
“home”.

Installation Titles:
“Persistence of My Memory with DARWIL70) Watches”
It was a very popular symbol of good life for the everyday working man
in Socialist Yugoslavia in 60s and 70s. Quite often it was presented as
an Award for years of loyal service or as a company retirement gift.
Frequently found in childhood memories.

“Brick Weave”
Word-play refers to a weaving-like pattern of brick-laying. This sculp-
tural construct connects two things very often associated with the
term “home” – bricks and traditional kilim weaving. In this case the
brick weaving incorporates some of the patterns found in the Pirot
Kilim of Serbia.

“Wishing Well / Abyss”
A wishing well is a term used in European folklore to describe wells
where it was thought that any spoken wish would be granted. Emi-
gration may bring hope, open new doors where anything is possible –
any wish may come true. But as in old folklore – that wish if granted –
is usually paired with sacrificing something one holds dear.

“Barricades”
Whether we erect them or they’re erected by someone else – there’s
always a barricade of some kind. Physical, mental, or emotional
barricades may be a protective element; yet may remind us of our own
vulnerabilities and limitations – perceived or real.

“Where I begin…”
…represents a childhood memory of inner-peace and innocence – an
illusive sense of belonging that may have already existed. A sense
of calm may be felt when visiting the place of birth, seeing items or
sensing the scents that are “engraved” in memory.

Lilly Otašević
Toronto

Mobius, Sculpture (2008)
H 96” x W 72” x D 60” (H 244 cm x W 182.88 cm x D 152.40 cm)
Stainless Steel, mirror-polish finish

Installed in Anne Johnston Courtyard, 2181-2191 Yonge Street,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
The sculpture’s name and form are derived from a geometric
surface discovered by the German mathematician August Ferdinand
Mobius. This mathematical curiosity called the Mobius Strip is a
closed loop with one-half twist which makes it a surface with no sides,
no beginning and no end. In modern days, it is primarily used as a
universal symbol of recycling.
The main motif of this sculpture is transformation and timeless
continuity of natural processes. The sculpture, a variation of the
original Mobius shape, represents the process of transforming waste
materials into useful resources. It symbolizes balance, and serves to
represent our unity with nature.

Ivars Peterson
Washington

Möbius in Toronto
A glistening, sinuous shape at the other end of a courtyard caught my
eye as I was walking down Yonge Street during a recent visit to Toronto.
I had to take a closer look.
The sculpture sits in the Anne Johnston Courtyard, between two
high-rise towers (named Quantum and Quantum 2) at 2181 and 2191
Yonge Street, in Toronto, Canada.
About 8 feet tall, the stainless-steel sculpture forms a giant, twist-
ed band that stretches skyward in a wide, stiff loop. I quickly con-
firmed that the band does, indeed, have the one edge and one side
characteristic of a Möbius strip.
I later discovered that the sculpture, created by Toronto artist
Lilly Otasevic, is titled Möbius. Her own description of the sculpture
acknowledges its mathematical roots and notes the Möbius strip’s
present-day ubiquity as the underlying form of the three-arrow re-
cycling symbol.
Otasevic says that her sculpture represents “transformation and
timeless continuity of natural processes,” symbolizing balance and
“our unity with nature.” Many of her other artworks have also been
inspired by nature and natural processes, especially the interplay
between light and shadow and interrelationships between organic
and inorganic matter, as seen in crystals, Fibonacci spirals, cellular
structures, and elsewhere.
Otasevic joins a growing number of artists who have found inspi-
ration in the wonderful mathematical discovery of August Ferdinand
Möbius, a list that includes Max Bill, Charles Perry, and others.

Photos by I. Peterson
Ivars Peterson is Director of Publications and Communications at the
Mathematical Association of America. As an award-winning mathe-
matics writer, he previously worked at Science News for more than 25
years and served as editor of Science News Online and Science News for
Kids. His books include The Mathematical Tourist, Islands of Truth,
Newton’s Clock, and Fragments of Infinity: A Kaleidoscope of Math
and Art.

Co-opt: The Mathematical Tourist, October 12, 2010
Oliver Girling
Montreal

Lilly Otasevic
Burston Gallery, 1092 Queen W.
The circular motif was also present in the work of Lilly Otasevic at
next-door Burston Gallery a month earlier. A graphic designer as
well as a sculptor, Otasevic has deployed metals in the fabrication of
a number of wall-relief sculptures. She begins with an emblematic,
circular shape, then complicates in through the use of texture and
volumetric continuity. There’s a great sprightliness to this work, like
the metal bricolage you see adorning Brazilian favelas or Mexican
shantytowns. It also put me in mind of early modern sculpture, Gabo,
Pevsner, Barbara Hepworth, in the way that the artist invests the metal
with a light plasticity: sheet copper, aluminum, nails, scratches, nail-
heads, wire on wooden supports. Yet the work is not nostalgic, which
is huge relief in this Retro/Art era.
Co-opt: Vie Des Arts, No 191 ÉTÉ 2003
www.viedesarts.ca
____________________
70) Darwil watch. Obscure Swiss brand known primarily in the Balkans and
Eastern Europe.