“Ilene Segalove.” ProofLos Angeles Art and the Photograph, 1960-1980, Fellows of Contemporary Art, 1992.

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Video maker, radio storyteller, photographic monteur—Ilene Segalove switches roles at will. All her work, though, examines the border—so hard to maintain—between illusion and actual experience; between pre-packaged, for-sale dreams and the ones we get for free.

Close But Not Cigar, 1975, is Segalove’s reclamation of history—a history in which the male figures strike noble poses, while the females bare their upper bodies or perform menial work. It is also a history wherein the only modern hero is a plastic goddess, freakishly missing essential parts of her anatomy.

Today’s Program: Jackson Pollock, “Lavender Mist,” 1950, 1974, is among her first mature works using photographs. It is a work that asks whether the great, passionate art that has shaped our culture is now tamed to bland commercial entertainment, while simultaneously wondering whether movies made to suit the airline traveler will be the cultural heritage we bestow.