"2-18-5-14-4-1-14-3-12-15-14-6-5-18-20", "7-5-18-20-18-21-4-5-8-5-9-6-20-1", and "2-15-14-1-16-9-14-1"

Patricia Ayres is known for her bandaged and anthropomorphic sculptures. Drawing from her formal training as a fashion designer, Ayres builds structures that evoke the human body. Stitched, stained, and wrapped, her work obscures the line between skin and garment, suggesting both strength and vulnerability. The artist repurposes military-grade equipment—such as harness hooks and heavy-duty elastic—to evoke the latent imagery of bondage and physical subjugation. She manipulates these elements with physical force, shaping them to appear restrained, bruised, or stretched. The result is simultaneously unnerving and deeply human. For the High Line, Ayres presents her first-ever outdoor installation, a series of three sculptures entitled _2-18-5-14-4-114-3-12-15-14-6-5-18-20; 7-5-18-20-18-21-4-5-8-5-9-6-20-1;_ and _2-15-14-1-16-9-14-1_. The towering works expand upon her interests in increasing scale, bodily form, constraint, and material resistance. The bulging structures resemble a patchworked cadaver version of a dress form, a model of the ideal human torso used by dressmakers and designers for fitting and draping garments. The titles are each a cipher for the names of saints, translated into a set of numbers akin to those given to prisoners, and reminiscent of serial numbers or clothing sizes. The numbered forms reference Ayres' upbringing in the Catholic Church, women's fashion standards, and the carceral system, and serve as a repudiation of the bodily constraint and coercion inherent in each. She steeps and soaks her assemblages with layers of pigment combined with anointing oil, altar wine, and iodine, giving them their wounded, fleshy appearance. Through this process, the sculptures become symbols of martyrdom and sacrifice—swollen vessels of suffering that have been bound and manipulated into total anonymity.