“Cyber cowboys meet Cinderellas in surrealistic cardboard sets of red and blue, with the occasional Mike Kelley cameo thrown in for good measure: Ericka Beckman’s films marry a bricolage 16 mm analogue film aesthetic with tightly orchestrated chaos. Virtual worlds merge with their “real” counterparts, and game strategies collapse into themselves; the films can be read as investigations of the concerns regarding the virtual and its attendant image cycle avant la lettre. Beginning in the seventies, Beckman’s interest has focused on exposing and undermining the rules surrounding gender and learned behaviour in popular culture. Given art’s current preoccupations with gender and virtuality, it seems timely that VeneKlasen/Werner are currently staging a retrospective of the artist’s oeuvre in Berlin.”
