art Research Essay

Humanities 101

Exhibition Essay

In this essay, you’ll write about an artist whose work appears in online exhibition The Pandemic as

Portal which runs until July 31 at The Audain Gallery: http://www.sfu.ca/galleries/audain-

gallery/ThePandemicisaPortal.html . You will do research that deepens your understanding of the

work of the artist you have chosen and relate that work to the themes of the overall exhibition.

Three Components of the Assignment:

1. Analyzing the exhibition: First you will analyze the overall exhibition, familiarizing yourself

with the themes and curatorial choices through the materials on the website.

2. Proposal +list of sources: You’ll write a proposal that indicates the direction you want to

take in analyzing the work of one artist and provide a list of research sources you’ve

gathered.

3. Research Essay: After receiving feedback from the instructor and your peers, you will write

an essay that follows through on your proposal and integrates your research.

Key Dates

Proposal + List of Sources:

• first draft due: July 23

• final due: July 24

Research Essay:

• first draft due: August 6

• final due: August 14

Learning Outcomes

Following a research process allows you to investigate things you’re interested in from the initial

phase of creating context, to collecting relevant details, to making connections among disparate

subject areas. In an art + design context research can inform your understandings of how art

produces meaning to develop more engaged and deeper understandings of artworks and

exhibitions.

Step 1: Analyzing the Exhibition

You’ll start the assignment by familiarizing yourself with the overall exhibition.

Suggestions for Previewing:

• Take notes about what you’ve read

• Generate questions about the exhibition

• Target particular works that catch your interest

Once you have a good sense of the overall exhibition, focus on a particular artist whose work

interests you. Some questions to keep in mind when looking at the exhibition:

• What are the art works being displayed?

• Which objects or artists am I interested in writing about and why? What issues draw me in to these pieces (or to this artist) in particular?

• How could you extend your interest in artist’s work through further research?

• What does the artist say about their own work?

• How do all the objects on view fit together? If it is a group show do the objects seem cohesive? What kinds of tensions are being produced?

Step 2: Proposal + List of Sources

Once you understand the exhibition as a whole and have chosen which artist you want to focus on,

write a proposal to convince your instructor of your approach. Take the following steps:

• Conceptualize an essay that will illuminate that work through further research. Consider

the questions you have about the work and think about how discovering additional

research would help elevate your (and the reader’s) understanding of the exhibition.

• You could consider how the objects or artist you have chosen relate to the theme of the

exhibit. What larger concepts do you feel are being examined in the objects or by the artist

you have chosen? Link the specific object or artist you want to write about with the larger

themes of the exhibition using research to support your critical perspective.

Create an Ongoing List of Sources

• Keep track of your research at every stage to create a list of sources to be included in your

proposal. Research is a collaborative dialogue between scholars and practitioners in a field

of study. When you provide a list of sources to your instructor, you are illustrating that you,

too, are participating in that ongoing dialogue, that you are able to conduct appropriate

research, and that you can examine various types of resources. It also allows your instructor

to see that you will be using diverse and relevant sources for your particular project. The

process of research is ongoing.

• In your research, you need to use at least one article from a peer-reviewed journal, which

you can find by using the Emily Carr University library databases. Use at least two

additional sources; these sources could be books, print journals/ magazines, the gallery

website or other reliable sources. From these research sites, you will produce a list of

sources and describe how the sources are relevant to your specific research paper.

Guidelines:

• Ensure the proposal clearly sets out the direction you want to take with your exhibition

essay including a critical perspective/thesis statement/research question

• Articulate why you want to take this approach to writing about the exhibition.

• Say how your approach connects to the larger themes of the exhibition.

• Include a list of all of the sources you’ve accessed, whether or not they will make it into

the final essay.

Step 3: Writing the Research Essay

Once your proposal is approved by your seminar instructor, you can start creating a draft and

incorporating your research into that draft. In an exhibition essay include:

• An introduction that articulates the approach you will take, stating the critical

perspective/thesis statement/research question that your essay will work through.

• Body paragraphs that integrate research sources to help build your argument or answer

your research question. Cite the sources in the text of your essay in MLA style and include

a Works Cited page at the end of your essay that links to those sources.

• A conclusion that demonstrates the difference between where you started and where you

ended up and shows the progress of your thinking throughout the essay.

Integrating Your Research into Your Essay

Each source should be cited according to MLA style as described in the MLA handout from the

Emily Carr Writing Centre Handouts: http://blogs.eciad.ca/wc/mla-style-formatting/ and from the

OWL Purdue website: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/614/01/ and

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/05/

As you read and think about your sources, try to be open to learning about the conversation

surrounding the artwork and artist you are writing about and refining your inquiry. You'll find that

research can help you focus or perhaps steer you in a new direction. You may find new insights

and a fresh angle into the conversation.

Use the research material generated in your proposal in your exhibition essay to demonstrate the

research context to the reader. Here’s a useful handout on using quotations in essays from the

Writing Centre: http://blogs.eciad.ca/wc/using-quotations/

Guidelines:

• Your paper should be a 1200 – 1500 words (excluding your works cited page)

• Use and cite 3-4 research sources, one of which comes from a peer reviewed journal.

• All textual source material, whether primary or secondary, must be properly cited in MLA

format in your Works Cited page.

• Double space and use 1” margins. Format essay according to MLA style.

• Include an inventive title, your name, your seminar instructor’s name, and the course

information at the start of the paper.

• Include a clearly labelled first draft with your final essay showing evidence of revision.