Ericka Beckman

Ericka Beckman is an American filmmaker who began to make films in the 1970s as part of the Pictures generation. Her films concern the relationship between people and images and how images structure people's perception of themselves and of reality.

Early life and education

Beckman earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Washington University in St. Louis in 1974 and attended the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in 1975.^[1] She attended the California Institute of the Arts, originally as a visual artist, but later changing her focus to filmmaking.^[2]

Career in filmmaking

Beckman's early films were handmade and collaborative, integrating choreography, music, and singing, as well as sculptural objects. Her handmade cinematic effects have been compared to Fernand Léger's Ballet mécanique (1921) or Hans Richter's Ghosts Before Breakfast (1928) and predated the visual technology of MTV and special-effects blockbuster films like Tron.^[3]

Beckman describes the subject matter of her films: "Film is creating a reality through the makeshift. My films move backwards, using narrative structures as does the mind of anyone trying to grasp the meaning of images in his memory."^[4]

The Super-8 films that Beckman created and exhibited prior to 1978, such as White Man Has Clean Hands,^[5][6] used basic prop-constructions and do-it-yourself special effects.^[7]

Beckman's "Super-8 Trilogy"^[8] demonstrated her ability to express her ideas using technical wizardry and poetic narrative. This trio of experimental films created between 1978 and 1980 included We Imitate; We Break Up (1978),^[9][10] The Broken Rule, and Out of Hand. In them, Beckman used herself and a rotating cast. includings James Casebere, Mike Kelley, and Paul McMahon, as performers. The films combine childhood dream recollections with ideas of the Swiss child psychologist Jean Piaget on the cognitive development of children.

Like other Pictures Generation artists,^[11] Beckman's films focus on the ways in which stereotypes shape an individual's self-image,^[12] revealing their origin in a generation raised on mass media. The kinetic movements of the actors are based on the "task-oriented" choreography of Lucinda Childs and Trisha Brown.

Beckman's work has been shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.^[13]

References

1. "Ericka Beckman | Sam Fox School". www.samfoxschool.wustl.edu. Retrieved 2015-06-02.
2. Richard Hertz (1 September 2011). Jack Goldstein and the CalArts Mafia. Hol Art Books. pp. 98–. ISBN 978-1-936102-21-1.
3. Ekland, Douglas (2009). The Pictures Generation, 1974-1984. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 124–127.
4. Horror Pleni: Pictures in New York Today, exh. cat. Milan: Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea. 1980. pp. n.p.
5. Vera Dika. The (Moving) Pictures Generation: The Cinematic Impulse in Downtown New York Art and Film.
6. . Palgrave Macmillan. 15 March 2012. pp. 38–. ISBN 978-1-137-25384-2 http://books.google.com/books?id=KT5mAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT38. Missing or empty |title= (help)
7. Noel Carroll (28 May 1998). Interpreting the Moving Image. Cambridge University Press. pp. 330–. ISBN 978-0-521-58970-3.
8. "Ericka Beckman - Reviews - Art in America". www.artinamericamagazine.com. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
9. Beckman, Ericka. "We Imitate We Break Up". Retrieved February 1, 2014.
10. Banes, Sally (2007). Before, Between, and Beyond: Three Decades of Dance Writing. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press. p. 174.
11. Eklund, Douglas (2009). The Pictures Generation, 1974-1984. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 127.
12. Jack Zipes (27 January 2011). The Enchanted Screen: The Unknown History of Fairy-Tale Films. Routledge. pp. 189–. ISBN 978-1-135-85395-2.
13. "Ericka Beckman - Reviews - Archive - frieze d/e". frieze-magazin.de. Retrieved 29 September 2014.