Despite its name, the Canadian Tuxedo has a distinctly American look. The denim-on-denim outing dates back to the 1950s, when Bing Crosby a full Levi’s ensemble while in Vancouver, where he set a sartorial trend that continues today.
The national mythology woven into this utilitarian material is also the focus of the Brooklyn-based company Nick Doylewho places denim on top of denim in large wall sculptures. From a pair of aviators reflecting puffy clouds to a vast Rocky Mountain landscape framed by brick, the works evoke a kind of nostalgic road trip west, as if chasing a big breakthrough and ultimately achieving the American dream.
For Doyle, denim is a poignant, loaded metaphor for much of American culture and history. The material has roots in slavery people enslaved in the South were dyeing cotton with indigo. There is also an association with the brusque masculinity of James Dean and the ruggedness of the cowboy, itself an extension of the gold rush and Manifest Destiny. In many ways, the material is a stand-in for the contradictions, hypocrisy, and unattainable desires that are so intertwined in American life.
While researching the visual language of Americana in 2018, Doyle came across a roll of denim that had been discarded by a fashion designer who was leaving his building. “At the time I had no money, so I made work from materials I found in the garbage bin or at the local hardware store,” he says. “While I was pulling [the roll] When I came out of the trash, I noticed a network of ideas in my brain. I felt that the material reflected the historical complexity I saw in my research, but also reflected my own family history.
This encounter was one of those providential moments that created an enduring fascination. In his solo exhibition Collective hallucinationson display at Perrotin, Doyle presents the latest of his denim sculptures, including stylized cacti, landscapes edged by chain-link fences, and more mystical objects such as tarot cards and a life-size fortune teller shop.
The show features numerous symbols of American exceptionalism and individualism, presented in the nation’s heritage fabric. Doyle shares:
In recent years, my understanding of American mythology has only become more complex. I think what we are experiencing now is in many ways a collapse of these mythologies. They are in direct conflict with current political realities, yet are evoked as if it were ‘business as usual’. America’s worldview has changed, but our country’s nostalgia for itself is making us late to the party. There is tragedy in vanity.
Collective hallucinations presents these unrealized dreams and confrontations in different shades of blue, making what appear to be individual moments simply different versions of the same story.
In addition to his practice, Doyle will soon open a kink bar called Human Resources and is working on a fall exhibition of paper collages and prints at Pace. If you are in New York, Collective hallucinations runs until May 30. Look differently Instagram.
