Despite its name, the Canadian Tuxedo is actually a distinctly American style. This denim-on-denim fashion originated in the 1950s when Bing Crosby donned an entire Levi’s outfit in Vancouver, launching a trend that remains popular today.
Brooklyn-based artist Nick Doyle explores the national mythology inherent in denim, using it to create large-scale wall sculptures. Through pieces like aviators reflecting fluffy clouds and expansive Rocky Mountain landscapes framed by brick, Doyle’s work evokes a nostalgic westward journey, symbolizing the pursuit of the American dream.
Doyle views denim as a powerful symbol, rich with meanings tied to American history and culture. Its origins trace back to chattel slavery, when enslaved people in the South dyed cotton with indigo. The fabric also conjures images of James Dean’s rugged masculinity and the cowboy ethos linked to the gold rush and Manifest Destiny, encapsulating the contradictions and unattainable ideals in American life.
In 2018, while researching Americana, Doyle discovered a roll of discarded denim left by a departing fashion designer. “At the time, I had no money, so I was making work out of material I found in the garbage or at my local hardware store,” he explains. “As I was pulling [the roll] out of the trash, I noticed a network of ideas connecting in my brain… I felt the material reflected the historical complexities I was seeing in my research, as well as being reflected in my own familial history.”
This serendipitous encounter sparked a lasting interest. Doyle’s solo exhibition, Collective Hallucinations, currently showing at Perrotin, features his latest denim sculptures. These include stylized cacti, landscapes bordered by chain-link fences, and mystical objects like tarot cards and a life-sized fortune teller’s shop.
The exhibition is filled with symbols of American exceptionalism and individualism, expressed through the nation’s heritage fabric. Doyle comments:
Over the last few years, my conception of American mythology has only become more complex… I think in a lot of ways what we’re experiencing now is a breakdown of these mythologies. They are in direct conflict with the current political reality, yet they are summoned as if it is business as usual. The world’s image of America has changed, but our country’s nostalgia for itself is making us late to the party. There’s tragedy in vanity.
The exhibition Collective Hallucinations captures these unrealized dreams and conflicts through various shades of blue, showing individual moments as distinct layers of a single narrative.
Besides his artistic pursuits, Doyle plans to open a kink bar named Human Resources and is preparing for a fall exhibition of paper collages and prints at Pace. If you’re in New York, Collective Hallucinations is open until May 30. For more information, visit Instagram.
.
