Between 1978 and 1981, Ericka Beckman created a landmark suite of experimental films. Known as The Super-8 Trilogy, these films are among the most iconic and original works of the ‘Pictures Generation’.

Featuring herself, and a cast of artist-friends (including James Welling, Matt Mullican, and Mike Kelley), her work is informed by Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget’s theories on the cognitive development of children, the culture of televised sports, as well as the heyday of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s musicals.

The films: We Imitate; We Break Up (1978), The Broken Rule (1979), and Out of Hand (1981) are not based on dialogues or a classical narrative structure, but on dream-like choreographed movements, songs, keyed-up colors, and special effects.

As the artist states: ‘Film is creating a reality through the makeshift. My films move backward, using narrative structures as does the mind of anyone trying to grasp the meaning of images in their memory.’