From the early 1990s onward, Sadie Benning has been staging a deeply personal world in their videos—one that stood in stark contrast to the stereotypes promoted by television, particularly the standardized image of women disseminated by mass media. Benning filmed themself alone, often in their bedroom, confronting the dominant culture and the visual codes of commercial TV at the time. Yet, far from entirely rejecting it, the artist has said they watched the music channel MTV for as long as they can remember: “I've been sucked into it most of my childhood. It has really helped a lot of my generation to see imagery in a totally different way. Good music videos are totally art”. [1] MTV thus became one of the many influences visible in Benning’s early 1990s work. So when the network commissioned them in 1995 to create a series of five video spots—broadcast in 1998 as part of a fundraising campaign titled Ain’t Nothin’ But a She Thing for the Ms. Foundation for Women [2] —it gave Benning a rare opportunity to produce and distribute their own imagery on national television. The commission was part of a limited number of visual artist incursions into the MTV lineup, including the MTV Art Breaks (1985–92) [3] and Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes, a show hosted by Warhol from 1985 to 1987.

Titled The Judy Spots, the five short videos—each two to three minutes long—feature Judy, a sad and oppressed teenager made of cardboard and papier-mâché, inspired by the characters Punch and Judy from traditional British puppet shows. Though Benning departs here from the self-filming approach used in their earlier works, they endow the character with concerns closely aligned to their own, even incorporating autobiographical references. [4] In these short vignettes, Judy questions her place in society through a variety of experiences: she expresses sorrow in Judy Feels Sad, recounts the alienation of repetitive jobs in Judy Hates Her Job, and critiques consumer culture in Judy Goes to the Mall. Benning had already explored these themes in other forms in previous works, using their own body as a subject. But while MTV offered them a public platform, the artist opted to speak through a papier-mâché alter ego—extending the reach of their message to a wider audience. Through this fictional proxy, Benning gave universal resonance to what were originally personal reflections. With The Judy Spots, they also began a shift in their practice, moving away from Pixelvision and self-filming toward a more fictionalized narrative form.

While MTV had begun opening itself to the alternative music scene after Nirvana’s mainstream success in the early 1990s, Benning’s video series also marked the entry of Riot Grrrl—a feminist music movement that had emerged in the late 1980s in Washington State—into its programming. The movement’s influence had already appeared in Benning’s early works, especially in Girl Power (1992), which features two tracks by the band Bikini Kill on its soundtrack. [5] For The Judy Spots, Benning directly entrusted the composition of the theme song to Bikini Kill frontwoman Kathleen Hanna, who collaborated on it with musician Azalia Snail. In the final video in the series, Judy Gets Mad, Benning further references the Riot Grrrl scene by showing Judy performing in a band. In the scene, Judy argues on the phone with her partner Courtney—voiced by Hanna—then reappears alongside another guitarist as they rehearse a new song, while Barbie dolls dance on screen. This subtle nod to Riot Grrrl culture ties back to Benning’s own experience and symbolically foreshadows the creation of the band Le Tigre in 1998, a collaboration between Hanna, Benning, and musician Johanna Fateman.

Marie Vicet, December 2024

Translated by Laurie Hurwitz

[1] Sadie Benning, in CherrGirls, Videos and Everything (after Sarah Schulman): The Work of Sadie Benning by Cherry Smyth,” Frieze, no. 8, February 1993, p. 21, https://www.frieze.com/article/girls-videos-and-everything, accessed October 14, 2024.

[2] See Christie Milliken, “The Pixel Visions of Sadie Benning,” in Frances K. Gateward and Murray Pomerance (eds.), Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice: Cinemas of Girlhood (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2002), p. 300.

[3] From 1985 to 1992, MTV invited visual artists to create short segments featuring its logo. Participants included Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lynda Benglis, Dara Birnbaum, Jonathan Borofsky, Charles Clough, Tony Cragg, Luigi Ontani, Richard Prince, Richard Tuttle, as well as Robert Longo, Jenny Holzer, The Wooster Group, and Survival Research Labs.

[4] See Gary Morris, “Sadie Benning’s Pixel Pleasures,” Bright Lights Film Journal, no. 24, April 1999, https://brightlightsfilm.com/sadie-bennings-pixel-pleasures/, accessed October 18, 2024.

[5] The band is considered a pioneer of the Riot Grrrl movement. In the video Girl Power, Benning used “Feels Blind” and “Double Dare Ya,” both featured on Bikini Kill’s self-released debut recording Revolution Girl Style Now!, issued on audiocassette in 1991.