Due to heavy rain in the forecast, tonight’s High Line Tour: From Freight to Flowers has been canceled. We look forward to seeing you on a future tour!
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Patricia Ayres
"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"
On the High Line between 19th and 20th Streets
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.
Artist bio
Patricia Ayres (b. 1975, New York, New York) lives and works in New York, New York. She has had solo exhibitions at prominent institutions around the world, including Tank Shanghai, China (2024); The Rubell Museum, Washington, DC (2023), and Miami, Florida (2022). Her work has been included in major international exhibitions including Material Worlds, Lustwarande, Tilburg, Netherlands (forthcoming); Tense, Ontsteking, Ghent, Belgium (forthcoming); Made in Tension, The Soloviev Foundation Gallery, New York, New York (forthcoming); to ignite our skin, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico (forthcoming); The Impossible Order of the World, Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2026); ignite our skin, SculptureCenter, Queens, New York (2025); Once Within a Time, 12th SITE Santa Fe International, Santa Fe, New Mexico (2025); Toward the Celestial: ICA Miami’s Collection at 10 Years, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (2024); Field of Vision, Zuzeum, Riga, Latvia (2023); This Basic Asymmetry, Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California (2022).
Support
Lead support for High Line Art comes from Amanda and Don Mullen. Major support is provided by Shelley Fox Aarons and Philip E. Aarons, The Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston, and Charina Endowment Fund.
Major support of High Line Art digital infrastructure is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Program support for High Line Art is provided by Sarah Arison, Suzanne Deal Booth, Charlotte Ford, Joyce F. Menschel and Stardust Arts.
Additional support for High Line Art is provided by Agnes Gund and Shane Akeroyd.
High Line Art is supported, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council, under the leadership of Speaker Julie Menin.
Sobre esta obra
Patricia Ayres (n. 1975, Nueva York, Nueva York) es conocida por sus esculturas antropomórficas vendadas que nublan el límite entre el cuerpo y la prenda. Inspirándose en su experiencia en el diseño de moda, la artista construye formas envueltas, cosidas y manchadas que evocan tanto protección como vulnerabilidad. Ayres reutiliza equipos de grado militar, como ganchos de arnés y elásticos resistentes, para insinuar sistemas de restricción, bondage y subyugación física. Manipulados por la fuerza, estos materiales aparecen lesionados, estirados o atados. Esto resulta en obras que resultan inquietantes y a su vez profundamente humanas.
Ayres presenta su primera instalación al aire libre para el High Line: tres esculturas monumentales llamadas: 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 y 2-15-14-1-16-9-14-1. Las estructuras, imponentes y abultadas, asemejan formas de vestir distorsionadas, modelos del torso idealizado que se utiliza en la confección de prendas. En función, los títulos son códigos numéricos para los nombres de santos, que traen a la memoria los sistemas de identificación de prisioneros, números de serie o tallas de ropa. Las obras numeradas hacen referencia a la crianza católica de Ayres, los estándares de moda femenina y el sistema carcelario, y también funcionan como un repudio a la inherente restricción y coerción en cada uno de ellos. Saturadas con pigmento, aceite de unción, vino de misa y yodo, parecen estar heridas y carnosas. Por medio de este proceso las esculturas se convierten en símbolos del martirio y el sacrificio, contenedores hinchados de sufrimiento que han sido atados y manipulados hasta quedar sumidos en el anonimato más absoluto.
关于这件作品
帕特里夏·艾尔斯（1975年生于美国纽约州纽约市）以其包扎缠绕、具有人形特征的雕塑而闻名，这些作品模糊了身体与服装之间的界限。基于时装设计背景，她构建出缝合、污渍斑驳、层层包裹的形态，既暗示保护，也显露脆弱。艾尔斯重新利用军用级硬件，如索具挂钩和高强度弹性材料，来暗示束缚、捆绑以及物理压制的系统。这些材料在外力的操控下，呈现出淤痕、拉伸或紧缚的状态，使作品既让人深感不安，又深具一种近人之境的真实感。
在高线公园的项目中，艾尔斯呈现了她的首个户外装置：三件巨型雕塑，分别名为《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》和《2-15-14-1-16-9-14-1》。这些高耸、膨胀的结构仿佛被扭曲的制衣人台，即服装制作中用于呈现理想化人体躯干的模型。这些标题以数字密码的形式对应天主教圣徒之名，同时让人联想到囚犯编号系统、序列号或服装尺码。这些以数字命名的作品既指向艾尔斯在天主教环境中的成长经历、女性时尚标准，以及监禁体系，也构成对其中所蕴含的身体规训与强制的反抗。在颜料、圣油、祭坛酒和碘液的反复浸染下，这些雕塑呈现出带伤的、近似肉身的质感。在这一过程中，这些雕塑成为殉难与牺牲的象征，仿佛被捆绑、操控，直至失去一切身份的肿胀容器，承载着持续的痛感。