Deepening an idea means to extend and explore it in a new context. For this progression, you will
discover a contemporary/primary artwork (The Mind Is Its Own Place, by Jennifer Packer), find the intellectual problem that exhibit takes interest in, and
explore how the artist understands this problem. You’ll also quote a contextualizing source like an
artist interview or review of the artist’s work in order to fully represent your ideas. Your task is to
borrow one idea (key term, theory, or claim) from the primary artwork and articulate your
discoveries about its complexity.
You will do this by putting your artwork in conversation with a secondary source (“Monster Culture:
Seven Theses”) which acts as a lens to reveal something new about your primary exhibit ‘s conceptual
concerns. By engaging in this process, you will ultimately form a new idea with an intellectual problem
of your own. Your discovery of this intellectual problem will provide you with a premise, or occasion
to write your essay.
Put another way, what’s a question the primary source leaves unanswered for you that only
“Monster Culture: Seven Theses” can help illuminate in some way? How does one idea, when
explored from another perspective, transform your reading of this artwork as a whole? Motivating
your reading with this question will not limit your analysis to identifying similarities between the two
texts, but will encourage consideration of what their differences can teach you.
Note: I recommend you begin by representing the artwork and the intellectual problem you aim
to explore. In your first few paragraphs, invite a curious reader’s mind into the space of a problem
or puzzle with world-facing implications (motive).
IMPORTANT to include: full representation of that artwork: include a visual description for an unfamiliar viewer, and any relevant context (outside quotes from an artist interview or review) that help shed light on how to engage with the art, and 1-2 key terms YOU might be interested in exploring personally (erasure, isolation, repetition, etc). These will leap from either your artwork itself, or secondary sources about your artist that you read. Be sure to include: artist full name, title of work, year it was created. Finally, narrow your paragraph to a specific puzzle/curiosity/or tension you might what to explore in the artwork itself. Put another way, what question does this artwork organically raise in you stemming from the project of the artist’s work?
Check this link to find the artwork: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/jennifer-packer?section=2#exhibition-feature
Your essay should be 3-4 pages double-spaced.
You will use one primary artwork, one secondary textual source, and one research-based source
that further contextualizes the artwork (artist interview, a review of the show, etc.)
Use key terms to scaffold your major ideas.
Give your essay a title that informs the reader and sparks his/her curiosity.
Think of the title as a
micro essay or framework for the paper.
Parenthetical Documentation required in-text in MLA Format.
Works Cited page required.
Allow your argument and idea to guide you to make intuitive choices about the order and format
of your essay.
Last Completed Projects
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