A writer and poet.

An artist.

A playwright, director, and producer.

A teacher and lifelong learner.

A world traveler.

All of these skills and interests have led resident artist Ryan Griffith to offer a unique studio experience at Space 4 Art and beyond. Read on to learn more about Ryan and the past, present, and future versions of his intriguing studio installation, Relics of the Hypnotist War.

What is your educational background?

I received a BA in English Literature from UC Santa Barbara, an MA in Composition from Fresno State, and an MFA in Creative Writing from San Diego State, but I’d say my best education came after my schooling— through travel, interesting conversations, and great books.

How long have you lived and worked in San Diego? When you’re not at S4A, how do you spend your time?

I’ve lived in San Diego since 1993, when I moved here for graduate school. I currently teach English— writing and critical thinking —at Grossmont College. In addition to my installation at S4A, I also write fiction and poetry and paint watercolors and do collage. I also love to travel, especially living in compelling cities for extended periods of time. My favorite cities are Saint Petersburg, Russia, where I lived off and on for many years, and Istanbul, Turkey, where I lived for three months.

How would you describe your “studio experience,” Relics of the Hypnotist War, to newcomers?

I call my space an interactive narrative installation, which is just a fancy way of saying that the design of the room, including all the objects, corresponds to a narrative— in this case, it’s a story about the world being put to sleep by a hypnotist invasion. Participants are invited to listen to the museum’s curator tell the story of the hypnotist invasion, then are asked to participate in the construction of their own narratives by choosing objects and telling their own stories. Like “real” history, the history of this room is a construction involving multiple narrators and multiple points of view, so there is no definitive story. It’s always changing based on the audience.

How did you conceive the idea for Relics of the Hypnotist War?

This project first started during a residency in Istanbul during the Fall of 2015, when I began accumulating objects that resonated with a piece of fiction I was working on at the time. I sought out objects to accompany the narrative, to give it the feeling of verisimilitude, or “real life” that so many writers seek to replicate. I wanted people to believe my story was real, so I began constructing a real world scenario with objects from my characters’ lives— glasses and plates and silverware they had used, letters they had written, clothes they had worn. I had incredible fun writing and constructing the installation, which was really well received at the Halka Gallery in Istanbul.

When I returned to San Diego during the Fall of 2016, I had all the stuff from Istanbul shipped back and added it to the collection of antiques and junk I already possessed. Based on the initial Istanbul installation, I did another installation at the Bonnafont Gallery in North Beach, San Francisco in September, 2016; then I got the studio at Space 4 Art.

Initially I envisioned my S4A studio as a place to write, but then I thought, why not take this installation further? I wanted to expand the installation and also write a new story, something that felt like a contemporary fable or fairy tale. Years earlier I had started a short piece about a hypnotist invasion that had put the world to sleep, and I began tinkering with it again and accumulating objects suggestive of a narrative. I quickly became obsessed with this story and began writing monologues from different points of view to understand the sleep epidemic and its causes.

Were there really hypnotists? What did they look like? How were people put to sleep and how did they wake? When did this happen? When did it end?

All of this happened to coincide with a rise in authoritarianism around the world. Trump in the US, Bolsonaro in Brazil, Orban in Hungary, in addition to many others. I wondered at the impulse for so many millions to concede their wills to these autocrats, to fall asleep morally and spiritually. I also wondered at the ways we all fall asleep and concede our will to others— lovers and friends and our addictions. So the material was rich with possibility.

You mentioned a curator telling the story of the hypnotist invasion. In effect, is this interactive narrative installation part play and part museum?

Yes, at times. In the Spring of 2017 I found an actor, Joel Gossett, to play the curator of the Hypnotist Museum. We began rehearsing and revising the script, and we had our first performance of Relics of the Hypnotist War in May of 2017 for six audience members— all the space is capable of sustaining. Somehow other people heard about the performances and we were doing shows every couple of weeks.

Then in the Fall of 2018, City Beat wrote an article that featured me on the cover, and all of a sudden interest was off the charts! I began doing shows almost every weekend and even hired a second actor, my former student Darlene Clearly, to also play the curator. The show grew and morphed, adding rituals, stories, monologues, and even an eleven-year-old doorman, Leonardo Menendez, whose father Frank was a musician across the hall (at Space 4 Art) at the time.

In 2019, I was contacted by Automata Theater in Los Angeles to bring Relics to their space in Chinatown, which was an incredible opportunity. I asked my best friend Scott, who lives in LA, to direct, and we did auditions and hired two local LA actors to play the curator and a blind doorwoman. I packed up and moved my entire studio to LA and we rehearsed during September and October for shows that ran every weekend in November to sold out crowds.

During the pandemic, the show was put on hiatus, but I’m currently working with my friend and Space 4 Art musician Sean Francis Conway on an opera version of Relics of the Hypnotist War. We’re just in the initial stages but I think it will be the best version of the show yet.

I don’t think Relics of the Hypnotist War will ever be “finished.” I’ve got too many ideas. There are too many possibilities. After the opera, I want to turn it into a graphic novel.

You also had a number of stories published online in 2023. Tell us more about those endeavors.

I was on sabbatical from my teaching job at Grossmont College for the entirety of 2023, so I had a lot of time to write. I knew the time would fly by, so I really tried to produce as many stories as I could and send them out to literary journals. In the end, I published seven pieces on a range of subjects. Among other things, I wrote stories about a girl and her undertaker father, a mystical elevator repair man, and a family that has lost the ability to feel and employs a “screamer”— a woman whose job is to express their pain through her screams.

During the past year my father was very ill, which motivated me to get work done. He had been an art teacher, and I wanted him to see me succeeding at my craft. I wanted to make him proud of me before he died.

Stay tuned for updates about the opera later this spring. In the meantime, you can find some of Ryan’s online stories here:

You can also check out Ryan’s website, or follow him on Instagram: @relicsofthehypnotistwar_

Ryan Griffith: Exploring the Uncanny