Rosebud #14 Lynda Benglis

In dialogue with She Keeps Them Warm With Her Skirt, we present Rosebud #14 Female Sensibility (1973-74) by Lynda Benglis. In this video intimacy and sensuality unfold between two women, creating a striking contrast with the masculine power talk and everyday chatter that surrounds them.

After a tentative start, only touching each other’s chins and still visibly self-conscious in their performative posing for the camera, the two women – Benglis herself and fellow artist Marilyn Lenkowsky – gradually slip into a space of tender connection. Through their kisses, gentle movements and erotic interactions, they construct a private, self-contained world, one the viewer is only allowed to glimpse for a moment.

This enclosed sensual and sensorial reality stands in stark contrast to the video’s audio track: a local American radio broadcast featuring a macho DJ. We hear snippets of songs and conversations, including reflections on Christian faith and a speculative theory about out-of-body experiences. But the main focus is on cars, money, and success—parading a series of dominant Western values, many of which sound surprisingly current. Also featured is a phone call from Benglis herself, in which she discusses her upcoming exhibitions and a childhood photograph of herself at age eleven, which she intends to use as promotional material.

In quiet defiance of this cultural backdrop, the women seem entirely detached from the mundane world around them, subtly rejecting normative expectations. Shifting between moments of self-awareness and seeming oblivion to the camera, their dreamy disengagement becomes a silent act of resistance—not only against the intrusive background noise, but perhaps also against the viewer’s gaze and the assumptions it carries.