Heart of a Citizen at Various Small Fires

VSF proudly announces Heart of a Citizen, Jill Magid’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. The exhibition will open on Thursday, May 22nd from 6-8PM during which time Esther Kim Varet will inaugurate The Platform.

A Town Hall event featuring Esther Kim Varet on The Platform will be held on June 14th at 7PM.

Jill Magid is an artist, writer and filmmaker living in New York City. Her work deals with the emotional, philosophical, and contractual aspects of relationships between people and the institutions set up to protect them, including intelligence agencies, police, corporations, artist estates, the law, and, most recently, politics. Working within such systems, Magid makes use of vulnerabilities and loopholes to interact with - and shape the behavior of - people who work inside them.

March 11, 2025

Esther,

Please see my updated show proposal below.

In light of the current state of the market and your shift in focus from the gallery to your congressional run, I am paring down the show to three works: the neon sign and concrete hearts in the garden, and a platform in the gallery.

You noted that my work is most powerful when it responds to a site or situation. For this reason I am integrating your run for office as a material of the work. The headline “Art dealer Esther Kim Varet launches bid for California’s 40th Congressional District” perfectly encapsulates the novel intersection of your dual identities.

Most of my work will be installed in the garden. The 15’ pink neon sign, Stenographer’s Note [At this point, a gust of wind rustled the trees in the Rose Garden.] will hang on the garden wall. I’ve decided to scatter the dozen cast-concrete facsimiles of my heart, collectively entitled The Rose Garden, outside on the gravel, rather than on the gallery floor. Trump’s recent proposal to pave the White House Rose Garden makes the proximity of these works especially prescient.

Inside the gallery, I will construct The Platform. This sculpture is designed after the platform in the White House Briefing Room. It will share the same 8’ x 12’ dimensions as the original platform, and be furnished with a copy of its star-spangled carpet. I invite you, and anyone you choose, to use it for political addresses related to your candidacy, during the run of the show.

You wrote that there is little time to “save American democracy as we know it” in an email sent on Valentine’s Day. I recognize your effort to flip the seat in the House as something you believe “we must all do together to save what we love.” As an artist, I am wondering how the art world can participate in this political moment. It is my hope that Heart of a Citizen will spotlight the opportunity that democracy allows for any one of us to create our own platforms. 

Jill