Ericka Beckman

Ericka Beckman is an American artist based in New York best known for her work in film and video. During Beckman’s time completing an MFA at CalArts in the 1970s, she began to make films on Super 8 that incorporated handmade visual effects and props that she had constructed herself. Between 1978 and 1980, Beckman created her acclaimed “Super 8 Trilogy” of experimental films. These films incorporated a variety of technical effects, such as superimposition and split screens, and included a variety of performers in three unconventional narratives that explored several themes central to Beckman’s work, such as competition, the real versus the constructed, and how the self is coordinated in the physical world. Since then, Beckman’s work has continued to engage with ideas around gender tropes, role playing in society, and the implications of virtual reality and the internet, in videos such as “Cinderella” (1986) and “Hiatus” (1999/2015), both of which are based on a game world damsel in distress scenario. Beckman has screened her work several times at The Kitchen since 1977, notably for the world premiere of “You the Better” in 1983, and a screening of “Cinderella” in 1986 as part of a double bill that also featured work by the independent filmmaker Bette Gordon. For more information visit: http://www.erickabeckman.com/