Patricia Ayres

Patricia Ayres is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York

Ayres considers themes of the body, drawing on her knowledge as a fashion designer, she brings materials and hardware from the fashion industry into her artwork, transforming and rendering them non-functional. Her sculptures relate to stories of isolation, separation, and confinement. Presently, the United States has the world’s largest incarceration rate. She analyzes how the United States penal system controls, constrains and restricts the body through physical and psychological wounds.

Ayres creates visceral totemic sculptures that are larger than human size. She uses elastic straps to convey restraint and obscurity. The tension implies sexual dominance and control. The spoiled markings throughout appear as bodily fluids and bruising. Ayres stains the elastic with anointing oil, iodine, paint, ink, dye, and gunk. There is a medicinal quality with residual scaring and a suggested atrophic form. The constricting straps are connected with industrial hooks. These sculptures attempt to reference pain, torture, and control. Moreover, an implied violence is imposed on these carnal forms ...