Ryan Bulis' "Garden Variety" installation contains references to the "Green Man," or "Wild Man." Credit: Patricia Marroquin
Ryan Anthony Bulis’ master’s project had its roots in kitschy garden statuary. Ryan, who earned his Master of Fine Arts degree last month, took an underutilized outdoor museum space at UCSB and transformed it into a whimsical attraction with items to catch both the eye and the imagination: lawn jockeys, gnomes, topiaries, even a curious “Green Man.” He calls his installation “Garden Variety,” but there’s nothing commonplace about it.
Ryan explains the significance of each item to the garden, and the cultural differences in garden spaces throughout history. His research included looks at Roman gardens, Italian Renaissance gardens, English landscape gardens, Chinese gardens, and Japanese gardens. What intrigued Ryan was how gardens through the ages have had the power to unite the wildness of nature with the civility of mankind.
Ryan Bulis' "Garden Variety" overlooks the UCSB Lagoon and is just outside the Art, Design & Architecture Museum. Credit: Patricia MarroquinThroughout the garden, Ryan has placed informational signage. In “The Garden and History” sign at the entrance, he writes:
“The Garden is a familiar place. Biblically, paradise was described as the Garden of Eden, while Ancient Greeks saw the garden as a site for carnal celebration. Grecian garden parties were a way to honor Dionysus, god of wine, ecstasy, and madness. Shakespeare’s use of the garden in ‘The Winter’s Tale’ suggests that the garden is a place between the orgy of Dionysus and the purity of Eden. The understanding was that the garden was a private place where half-civilized behavior could take place while embracing one’s inner satyr.”
The peaceful plot of fancy is tucked away at the top of a flight of stairs overlooking the UCSB Lagoon and is just outside the Art, Design & 
Topiary, Green Man, and gnome. Credit: Patricia MarroquinArchitecture Museum. At the garden’s center is a rectangular bed of grass, filled with colorful ceramic mushrooms and gnomes, most of which Ryan created; a bright flowerbed; a trio of lawn jockeys; and scattered seashells. Around the edges of the garden are yet more statuary; interactive lawn games; wooden benches; topiaries and chia plants; and a “Green Man” mask hung on the brick wall.
Ryan’s “Garden Variety” project was initially part of the museum’s “Inside Out: 2013 UCSB Master of Fine Arts” exhibition, held from May 25 to June 16. The exhibition displayed the works, in a variety of mediums and techniques, of graduating MFA students. Those 2013 Department of Art graduates are listed here. Although Ryan’s garden was meant to be temporary, it still stands. He said it is likely to remain up for the summer. Because of the openness and interactivity of the space, however, it is susceptible to theft and damage, which have occurred since its installation, Ryan said.
Three lawn jockeys are prominently displayed in "Garden Variety." Credit: Patricia Marroquin
Ryan, who recently earned his MFA from UCSB and holds a BA in Fine Art (2009) from UC Davis, says he’s fortunate to have secured a teaching fellowship at UC Santa Barbara for the 2013-14 academic year. He is teaching in the College of Creative Studies and for the Art Department.
In early June, we had a chance to speak with Ryan. He shares what he learned through the research for his master’s thesis; why giving back is a priority in his life; the challenges of being a first-generation college student; what’s up with that mysterious, green “Wild Man” seen throughout his garden; and more. Read on, and view our “Garden Variety” video at the end of the article. …
Colorful and whimsical statuary fill Ryan Bulis' garden. Credit: Patricia Marroquin
You said you have noticed a change in the size and importance of art programs in the UC system over the years. Please elaborate.
I know that most of the art programs within the UC system were larger in the past. The economy has been in a decline since I was in high school, and I am sure as the economy has worsened that a major like art seems less and less like a sure investment for post-academic employment. The thing I advocate for in education is the same thing I advocate for in art: education for education’s sake and art for art’s sake. I worry that economic uncertainty has devalued art as a legitimate major of study. The future I hope for is to both prioritized education and art.
What has it been like to be a first-generation college student?
I am the first to attend college in my family. Both my parents struggled in school due to family trouble and a lack of emphasis on academic study. My mother dropped out of high school and later received her GED and my father transferred to a continuation school whereby he never officially graduated. This problematic relationship with secondary education left both my parents with an ambivalent attitude for school. They have always been supportive of me and expressed that they expected that I perform well in school, but I feel like they lacked the experience to successfully guide me as I approached college. This in combination with their busy work schedules caused me to become independent and self-motivated.
Being that my college experience was riddled with challenges unique to first-generation students, I have always made it a priority to give back to the community I came from. Working with nonprofits and grant-funded programs, I have had the chance to guide students, like me, to a college that best fits their needs. The program I most recently worked with was the TRIO program GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs).Through this program we offered academic guidance, mentoring, and tutoring programs in addition to monthly field trips to schools that would be of interest to Southern California students. Giving back is a major priority to me and I hope to integrate my art-making practice with some form of community development.
How did you come up with the idea for "Garden Variety"?
I had other ideas in the works for the thesis show, but once Elyse Gonzales, the museum’s curator, presented the garden space as a potential space for a project, I was totally committed to making new work for this underutilized space. From there I just began to research what the garden was in our culture and where it came from. Through that research I found that the kitsch garden statuary of today shares its lineage with the garden itself. Other aspects have leached into my process, but by and large I was interested in uprooting the meaning of the space between nature and man.
Please describe "Garden Variety."
"Garden Variety" is a largely sculptural installation that utilizes interactivity, landscape and social practice as a way to activate the site and the audience that would usually ignore the museum’s garden space. The sizable investment on my part is a way of making the space as venerable as possible. This vulnerability leaves the space open to total destruction or total investment. The objects and landscape features are meant to activate the audience’s ownership over public space while also awakening them to the vast and interesting histories that exist in the objects of the everyday environment. Overall I have seen the interaction with the space as being overwhelmingly constructive.
At your installation, a sign tells visitors that they may enjoy “the untapped splendor in everyday objects while confronting their darker past.” What were you referring to?
I feel like many things that we experience in our daily lives are simultaneously rooted in ancient tradition while also being the product of chance or incomplete knowledge. In the face of tradition we continue to yield our creative potential to appease cultural uniformity even when we know the tradition is wrong. I cite the days of the week. The days of the week are based on the number of planets that were known to exist in ancient time. The Sun (Sunday), The moon (Monday), Mars (Tuesday), Mercury (Wednesday), Jupiter (Thursday), Venus (Friday), Saturn (Saturday). I am fascinated that there is an origin story for most everyday objects, yet that story is unknown by most people. Just because it’s tradition doesn’t mean it’s correct. This relates to design, administrative hierarchies, and general problem-solving.
Some objects have actual insidious origins and have had a profound effect on our cultural attitudes. The lawn jockey has been a source of racism while also having remarkably heroic moments in its history. The lawn seems like a benign cultural object until you examine the effect grass has on water conservation and soil quality. To weed a garden is a subtle eugenic gesture that may speak to other eugenic attitudes that are just below the surface of our collective consciousness. I tend to correlate the way we treat lesser life forms to how we treat our fellow man.
Is the face on the brick wall supposed to be a likeness of you? If so, why?
The mythical "Green Man." Credit: Patricia MarroquinThe mask on the garden wall is not necessarily supposed to be me; it could be Pirate the local legend of IV (note the one closed eye), Robert Arneson, or anyone who has features that mark them as primitive or feral. The origin of the Green Man wall mask goes back to ancient Greek culture where this garden feature was a representation of the Greek God of Wine, Dionysus. The later versions of the statue became a lost homage to the god that was also the god of the wilderness, dancing, and revelry. The later forms come from northern Europe where they had been reinterpreted from the versions made during Roman occupation of Britain. The Green Man mask of Britain is said to be the image of a Wild Man peering through the edge of the forest and into your garden, a place meant to represent the threshold between the wilderness of nature and the civility of man.
Explain your use of the “Wild Man” in your installation.
The Wild Man is a symbol of humanity’s primitive past. This symbol both reminds us that we are not in the state of nature while also making a statement that primitiveness is bad. I am interested in the way we as humans create hierarchies that reinforce and justify the great chain of being. The image and idea of the wild man is pervasive, and most of the time they are not even recognizable. R. Crumb’s Mr. Natural, the Green Man garden sculpture, Krampus, trolls, shaman, Great Apes, Big Foot, Vikings, Neanderthals, Captain Caveman, The Hulk, etc. … Any time ancient man encountered a society that was closer to nature than they were, they deemed this other society as wild and therefore subhuman. The example I like to cite is the word for Orangutan means “person of the forest.” Many of my performances are meant to provoke the Wild Man that lurks just below our otherwise composed self. Like Jekyll and Hyde, I feel like there is a beast in all of us waiting to make its appearance.
It appears that this is an interactive project. Please explain why you want visitors to interact with it.
Ryan Bulis with one of the inhabitants of his garden, the gnome. Credit: Patricia MarroquinThe idea behind interaction in the garden is one of symbolic value. Art is historically a spectator-based experience for the audience. Artists like Allan Kaprow and Marina Abramovic have utilized the audience’s participation as a way to activate the spectator into the participant. For the garden the real test is in the way the audience interacts with the space. I have seen large groups of people playing and changing the space and I have watched others just walk through with minimal engagement. I do not measure the success of the piece through a narrow definition. I would rather the success be determined by the audience and I am not concerned with the classic definition of guiding the audience to one prefabricated interaction. The interaction is important because of the heightened risk and uncertainty that a public space provides.
What will achieving this MFA mean to you?
The MFA experience is an invaluable opportunity for a young artist to develop ideas and strategies for art-making while in the sanctuary of the academic setting. One can take big risks in this environment that couldn’t as easily be taken under the watch of the greater art world. Here a failure is less public and you have the benefit of a creative and critical community that helps you work through challenging and unconventional ideas. I for one have tried to work in unconventional ways that have yielded great success and miserable failure. I want to keep curious, I want to engage new audiences, and I am hungry for what comes next.
What has TAing been like for you?
Being a TA and a section leader at UCSB has been a great experience. The Department of Art runs section courses like art labs. Most of the art-making happens in these sections and we are responsible for two-thirds of the day-to-day content. This has complemented my interest in leadership and alternative methods. One great lighting demonstration I gave to my Intro Photo class included a Skype call to my class that was projected in place of my presence. I used a variety of light sources, on my end of the camera, to demonstrate the subtle power light has in making mechanical images. The classroom is best when all my students come together in a way that they share their knowledge and experiences. I am happy to be their most important resource, but I feel like they have everything they need already inside them. I see my job as giving them permission to do things the rest of society prohibits. Whether it’s the permission to play or the permission to fail, I see the lessons in my classroom as valuable lessons for any student in any discipline.
What are your plans in the near future? And what are your longer-term career goals?
My near future is in teaching at UCSB. I am fortunate that the Department of Art has granted me a teaching fellowship for the 2013-2014 academic year. I will teach three classes over the course of the year in the College of Creative Studies with opportunities to teach for the Art Department. This summer I will also get a chance to teach intermediate drawing. I am very passionate about my students, and I truly believe in the capacity for all students to be creative. Having taught a great deal already I would love to continue teaching at the university level. Other plans include potential collaborative projects with Tristan Newcomb on a film project and Erik Sultzer on an installation in Houston, Texas. I also have plans to propose some public art projects for the city of San Diego. The future is bright.