Open Access: Inside the Lucas Artists Program
  • About
    • Overview
    • Artists
    • Commissions
    • Contributors
    • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Program Archive
    • 2020 Programs
    • 2019 Programs
    • 2018 Programs
    • 2017 Programs
    • 2016 Programs
    • 2015 Programs
    • 2014 Programs
    • 2013 Programs
  • Artists at Work
    • Behind the Scenes
    • This Week In my Studio
    • Around the Table
    • Art Practical Partnership
  • In the News
    • Fellows in the News
    • LAP Updates
    • Jury Selections
    • Press Releases
    • Call for Proposals (RFP)
  • Watch & Listen
    • Audio
    • Video
  • About
    • Overview
    • Artists
    • Commissions
    • Contributors
    • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Program Archive
    • 2020 Programs
    • 2019 Programs
    • 2018 Programs
    • 2017 Programs
    • 2016 Programs
    • 2015 Programs
    • 2014 Programs
    • 2013 Programs
  • Artists at Work
    • Behind the Scenes
    • This Week In my Studio
    • Around the Table
    • Art Practical Partnership
  • In the News
    • Fellows in the News
    • LAP Updates
    • Jury Selections
    • Press Releases
    • Call for Proposals (RFP)
  • Watch & Listen
    • Audio
    • Video
Search
Picture
Far East of Eden is an experimental film short developed by internationally recognized artists Karen Finley and Bruce Yonemoto. The work, which was developed by Finley and Yonemoto during their tenure as visiting artists at the Lucas Artists Residency in 2016, was commissioned by Montalvo Arts Center.
 
Far East of Eden draws on the story of Senator James Duval Phelan, three-time mayor of San Francisco and the first popularly elected California Senator. In 1912, Phelan built Villa Montalvo as his country estate in Saratoga, California. Villa Montalvo was Senator Phelan's favorite home and a center of artistic, political and social life in Northern California. Upon his death in 1930, he bequeathed the Villa and surrounding property as a public park, asking that they be used “as far as possible for the development of art, literature, music, and architecture by promising students.” Decades later, this would become Montalvo Arts Center.
 
During his political career, Phelan was an outspoken supporter of various anti-immigrant policies, including the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Immigration Act of 1924. While researching Montalvo as the site for a new project, Finley and Yonemoto were struck by Phelan’s anti-Asian sentiments, especially as expressed in his essay The Japanese Evil in California. Noting a disturbing parallel between Senator Phelan’s nativist views and the ethnic and religious intolerance that has gained currency in our contemporary political discourse--including calls for walled borders, forced removals of minorities, and military-assisted deportation--the artists were inspired to use the events of yesterday to examine the policies of today and affect change for tomorrow.
 
The world premiere of Far East of Eden took place at Montalvo Art Center in September 2016. It was subsequently screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in February 2017.

​You can view the full list of the cast and crew here.​​

Image Gallery

Meet the Artists
Picture
Performance Artist Karen Finley
Karen Finley is a New York-based artist whose raw and transgressive performances have long provoked controversy and debate. She has presented and performed her visual art, performances, and plays internationally, including at Lincoln Center, Guthrie Theater, American Repertory Theatre, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Steppenwolf Theatre, and Theatre Bobino. Her artworks are in several collections and museums, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris and Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and accolades, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Art’s Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, two Obies, and two Bessies. The
New York Times art critic Ben Brantley has praised her work, saying “there’s no denying the genuine rage and pain behind her performance, nor her ability to find voices that reflect those feelings in disturbingly visceral ways.” Read more about Karen Finley at karenfinley.com.
​​

Picture
Multimedia Artist Bruce Yonemoto
Bruce Yonemoto has developed a body of work that positions itself within the overlapping intersections of art and commerce, of the gallery world and the cinema screen. As a "hyphenated American" (Japanese-American), he has a special interest in literature (anthropological, fictional, travel) that explores areas where people geographically and historically separated come into contact with each other and establish ongoing relations. These contact zones have been historically rife with coercion, radical inequality, and violent conflict. Yonemoto has been honored with numerous awards and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Film Institute, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Maya Deren Award for Experimental Film and Video. Most recently, his solo installations, photographs, and sculptures have been featured in major one-person shows at the ICC in Tokyo, the ICA in Philadelphia, and the Kemper Museum in Kansas City. The Tate Modern in London organized a retrospective of Yonemoto's work in 2017. Read more about Bruce Yonemoto's at bruceyonemoto.com.​​

Partners and Sponsors
Far East of Eden was made possible through the generous support of the following program partners, exhibition sponsors, and Friends of the Lucas Artists Program:
T.M. Ravi and Francine Lejeune • Wanda Kownacki • Glenn and Sherri Osaka • Sudnya Shroff and Nickhil Jakatdar • Tom and Yuko Tiernan ​

Press Release
Picture
PRESS RELEASE
​Announcing Far East of Eden

Montalvo Arts Center is pleased to announce that on Wednesday, September 28, 2016 it will present the world premiere of an experimental short film by internationally recognized artists Karen Finley and Bruce Yonemoto: Far East of Eden. The work, which was developed by Finley and Yonemoto during their tenure as visiting artists at Montalvo's Sally and Don Lucas Artists Residency earlier this year, was commissioned by Montalvo.
Read More >>

Related Articles
Picture
Karen Finley Debuts Unicorn Gratitude Mystery
Last month, LAP Guest Artist Karen Finley debuted Unicorn Gratitude Mystery, an experimental Off-Broadway performance. The show has garnered enthusiastic acclaim from New York critics. Over the past three years, Finley and her creative collaborator Bruce Yonemoto have been engaged as Guest Artists at Montalvo's Lucas Artists Residency Program. Their recent commissioned film project, Far East of Eden, will premiere at Montalvo in late September.
​Read More >>​​

Related Press
Picture
Doc Fortnight 2017: MoMA's International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media 
​MoMA’s annual celebration of innovation in nonfiction film returns with an international lineup of more than 20 features and 10 shorts. The 2017 series highlights themes of justice and advocacy, reexamining how we interact with history and the landscapes we encounter, through vérité camerawork, animation, archival footage, interviews, avant-garde performance, and more.
​Read More >>

Picture
Art and Anger: How Karen Finley Turned Trump and Hillary into Brilliant Performance Art
By Anthony Haden, The Daily Beast
​
Karen Finley, famed for her transgressive performance art, has two new targets in her latest show, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton—​and how they use, abuse, and revel in power.
​Read More >>

Picture
Montalvo Deals with James D. Phelan's Racism 
​By Scott Herhold, Mercury News

Now an important piece of historical revisionism is unfolding at the Montalvo Arts Center, which has enjoyed a vigorous renaissance under Angela McConnell, its executive director for the last seven years. The new judgment has much to do with the presidential election of 2016.
​Read More >>

Picture
A Fake White World 
By Jaya P., India Currents

Late September 2016, I watched an experimental short film, Far East of Eden, presented by two artists Bruce Yonemoto and Karen Finley at the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, California.
The film was performance theater. It anatomized and drew parallels between the anti-immigrant speeches of President-elect Donald Trump and Senator James Duval Phelan—a democrat and three-time mayor of San Francisco who also served in the United States Senate from 1915 to 1921.
Read More >>

Picture
These Artists Just Proved how Unoriginal Donald Trump's Racism Is
​By Taylor Lindsay, Vice
When one of the oldest arts organizations in the US has a history marked by a racist founder, few bother to examine it. But a new experimental film is doing exactly that: The Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, California has released a short starring performance artist Karen Finley, dealing directly with its benefactor’s racism—and Donald Trump’s.
Read More >>

Picture
Trump, Hillary, and Bernie, All Cryptically Played by One Artist 
​By Taylor Lindsay, Vice

This year, Finley returns with Unicorn Gratitude Mystery, hosted by Spin Cycle at the Laurie Beechman theater in Manhattan. For it, she plunges into politics and creates cathartic impersonations of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Read More >>
About
Overview
Artists
Commissions
Contributors
​
Events
Picture
Sign up for our mailing list 
In the News
Fellows in the News
LAP Updates
Jury Selections
Press Releases
Artists at Work
Behind the Scenes
This Week in my Studio
Around the Table
Art Practical Partnership
Contact
15400 Montalvo Road 
Saratoga, CA 95071
(408) 961-5800
​Contact us
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
  • About
    • Overview
    • Artists
    • Commissions
    • Contributors
    • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Program Archive
    • 2020 Programs
    • 2019 Programs
    • 2018 Programs
    • 2017 Programs
    • 2016 Programs
    • 2015 Programs
    • 2014 Programs
    • 2013 Programs
  • Artists at Work
    • Behind the Scenes
    • This Week In my Studio
    • Around the Table
    • Art Practical Partnership
  • In the News
    • Fellows in the News
    • LAP Updates
    • Jury Selections
    • Press Releases
    • Call for Proposals (RFP)
  • Watch & Listen
    • Audio
    • Video