The Riot Tapes

Overview

The Riot Tapes (1984) offers a sharp and ironic take on Segalove’s college years during the Vietnam War protests. Using the aesthetics of 1980s television, Segalove reenacts the clichés of 1960s campus life—sex, drugs, politics, and love—with satirical humor. Employing reenactments and archival footage to recount the artist’s political involvement in college, her boyfriend’s becoming-anorexic while dieting to evade the draft, and her discovery that art could offer her a space for political commentary, the work not only critiques the sentimentalization of ’60s activism but also interrogates how the Reagan era reshaped public memory, turning a deeply personal lens onto the political and cultural fissures of both decades. - Amant