Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) and the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts present a screening of "Blind Country" (1989). The short film will be followed by a conversation between Beckman and Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA) Curator, Jamillah James.
"Made in collaboration with fellow California Institute of the Arts alum Ericka Beckman, 'BLIND COUNTRY' is loosely inspired by the H.G. Wells short story 'The Country of the Blind'—an adolescent favorite of Kelley’s—in which a one-eyed man encounters a sightless society and must give up his vision to live among them. Kelley and Beckman’s take reestablishes the story as one of castration anxiety, emphasizing the “thinly veiled sexual and racial fears” within Wells’ original.
Followed by a Q&A with Ericka Beckman, in conversation with Jamillah James.
Ericka Beckman is an American artist and filmmaker based in New York. Beginning her career in the 1970s alongside peers at CalArts, she is considered a key figure in the Pictures Generation. Over her three-decade career, her playful yet formally demanding films challenge traditional aesthetic and cultural values, mixing games with fairytales to create hybrids with new rules.
Jamillah James is Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA). With Margot Norton, she is curating the 2021 edition of the New Museum Triennial. Prior to joining ICA LA in 2016, James was Assistant Curator at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, working in collaboration with the nonprofit Art + Practice."
