Dual Screen Installation
16mm/color/sound
21 minutes
1999/2015

Produced, directed, shot and edited by Ericka Beckman
Starring Madi Distefano and Daniel Ruth
Sound Design by Bruce Darby.

Produced with funds from The National Endowment for the Arts, Massachusetts Council on the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and the Experimental Television Center

“HIATUS is a 20-minute experimental narrative film about a young woman who plays HIATUS, an on-line interactive ‘identity’ game. Propelled through action by her Go-Go cowgirl construct Wanda, and powered by a computer corset that stores her programs in a garden interface, Maid meets Wang, a powerful take-over artist. She must learn how to use the power of her ‘organic memory’ to block his expansion and preserve her freedom.” — E.B. 1999

“Beckman pictures a near- future which questions the notion that technology can provide the means for empowerment, but imagines the possibilities of appropriating interactive CD-ROM technology to generate new narratives and futures.” — Jenny Terry and Melodie Calvert, from ‘Processed Lives’ Routledge Press.

“Ericka Beckman is the closest to a consensus heroine- her stylistically assured, graphically dynamic, relentlessly go-go work has been included in three consecutive Biennials, as well as the New York Film Festival, and has been reviewed in Art in America, The Millennium Film Journal, and the Village Voice” — J. Hoberman, Village Voice.

• Carrigan, Margaret. “What Can Fairy Tales Tell Us About Today? Two Video Artists Offer Modern Takes” OBSERVER.COM, June 5, 2018
• Epps, Philomena. “The Mechanism of Mythology.” ROMAN ROAD JOURNAL, April 5, 2018
• Harrison, Anya. “Fracturing the Fairytale.” BLOUIN ARTINFO, MODERN PAINTERS, April 2018
• Larios, Pablo. “Ericka Beckman: The Game Changer.” FRIEZE, March 26, 2018
• Grand, Robert. “A Harsh Game: Ericka Beckman’s (Virtual) Reality.” AFTER IMAGE, Vol 44, no. 3, 2017
• Banai, Nuit. “Rien Ne Va Plus: Nuit Banai on Ericka Beckman at Secession, Vienna.” TEXTE ZUR KUNST, Issue 108, December 2017
• “Erica Beckman.” THE NEW YORKER, 2016
• Gaudlitz, Moritz. “ericka beckman über virtual reality…” i-D GERMANY, October 2015
• Woeller, Marcus. “Ich kreiere das Spiel, und ich setze die Regeln.” DIE WELT, October 10, 2015
• Bier, Arielle. “Ericka Beckman.” ARTFORUM, October 6, 2015
• Forrest, Nicholas. “Ericka Beckman on Filmmaking, Gameplay, and Her Berlin Show.” BLOUIN ARTINFO, September 22, 2015
• Ribas, Amanda. “Ericka Beckman.” EXBERLINER MAGAZINE, Issue 141, September 2015
• Neuendorf, Henri. “The 25 Shows Around Europe Everyone Should See.” ARTNET, September 11, 2015
• “Ericka Beckman: Augmented Reality and Cinema Games.” HIGHLINEART, March 2015
• Larios, Pablo. “Review: Ericka Beckman VeneKlasen/Werner, Berlin, Germany.” FRIEZE, October, 2015
• Fulton, Jeni. “Ericka Beckman — Digital Analogue Pioneer.” SPIKE ART MAGAZINE, October, 2015
• “Ericka Beckman Works 1978 – 2013” MAGASIN, Centre National d’Art Contemporain (press release), 2014
• “Los Angeles Filmforum presents Ericka Beckman.” LOS ANGELES MOCA (press release), 2014
• Baker, Sarah. “On Hiatus.” ART & MUSIC, Winter 2013, pp. 18-19.
• Hoberman, J. “Cinema Gamer.” MOUSSE, Summer 2013
• Harbison, Isobel. “Image Games.” FRIEZE, October, 2012
• Taubin, Amy. “Fairytales of New York.” ARTFORUM MAGAZINE, April 2011
• Terry, Jennifer, & Calvert, Melodie. “Processed Lives: Gender and Technology in Everyday Life.” 1996
• Gender and Technology, 1995 (program)
• “A ‘Video Viewpoints’ Special Presentation: ‘Through a Video Window: Technology in the 1990’s’.”
• THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART DEPARTMENT OF FILM (program document)