Artist in Person Since the early 1970s, Ilene Segalove has comically pursued asingular subject, her own upbringing in southern California. Oftenmocking television genres, Segalove's tapes read as a bewildered,desperately aching homage to a life riotously infested with stardom,hormones, and adolescent fears. The Mom Tapes (1974-78, 28 mins), aseries of short vignettes, casts her mother as a celebrity whose mundaneaffairs seem as worthy of airtime as those of any full-fledged Hollywoodstar-at least to her cheerful, secretly savvy daughter. Bloated artdirection and all, Why I Got Into TV and Other Stories (1983, 10 mins)recounts several wry tales about Segalove's formative moments with TVwhich she discovers has the power to attract, a power any adolescentgirl would crave. In one witty story she tells of breaking the set'sremote, bringing the TV repairman, her prince charming, back for a housecall. Whatever Happened to the Future? (1987, 17 mins) contrasts herchildhood optimism with the shoddy spectacle of a life filled withfakery-appliances, environments, even experience. As lightly humorous asmany of these works may appear, beneath their grinning surface lies anaghast disillusionment. This is where Segalove's art resides.-SteveSeid