A Survivor's Guide to the EPQ

Around this time last year, I had just finished the first draft of my EPQ essay.

The Extended Project Qualification is offered by AQA and Edexcel exam boards and involves choosing a question to investigate and then writing a 5,000 word report on said question.

August to December 2015 was probably the most stressful time of my life so far. Beginning with EPQ research in the summer and leading through to the essay deadlines, the presentation, personal statement writing, university applications, Cambridge interview preparation, the interview, coursework deadlines… on top of all my normal school work. It was a really intense time.

Taking selfies with my books instead of reading them... As you do. 

The title of my EPQ was “To What Extent Was Political Change The Most Important Factor In Influencing The Creation Of Realism In The 1800s?” I investigated political change as a key factor, and then argued that other factors such as the role of individuals, technological and scientific advancements, and social change were equally, if not more, crucial in the creation of the artistic movement. You can read more details about my EPQ and an excerpt here.

In the end I got an A* in the project so it was all worth it but I really empathise with people going through the process right now. So I thought I’d write down a few pointers I’d give to those undertaking the EPQ this year.

1. Pick something you are genuinely interested in. Honestly, one of the main things that helped me not have a complete mental breakdown was the fact I am obsessed (in case you didn’t notice) with history of art, the subject of my EPQ.

So that would be my first piece of advice to anyone undertaking an EPQ: pick something you are passionate about. You are going to have to spend hours sitting at home or in a library reading and reading and writing and writing about this subject. If you don’t love it I really don’t think you’ll be able to finish it or pick up another book again. My teacher said to me “write about something you’ve always had a burning desire to find out.” Now, I wouldn’t go that far because it’s a bit unrealistic. I don’t wake up every day wanting to know about the creators of realism, but I knew I love talking and reading all about art so it was a safe bet I wouldn’t get bored.

No, I didn't do doodles for my EPQ...

2. Once you know the general topic, do thorough research to find a good title. So, great, you know you love zoology so it makes sense to write about animals. But you obviously can’t write about the entirety of the animal kingdom in 5000 words, giving enough detail where necessary. So next you’ll be asked to narrow down your topic. I’d say make sure you do enough research about different options in order to be able to pick the best one. I sort of fell into doing realism, but if I’d researched more art movements beforehand, I would have better understood which one to focus on and would have narrowed down my research far earlier.

3. Find a topic with a good debate. This one’s tricky, but it’s another one I’d have improved about my essay. The historians I researched all pretty much agreed with each other. I think it would have made a far more interesting angle if there was a bit of disagreement. For instance, instead of looking at what caused the creation of Realism, if I had looked at its impact and whether or not it was a relevant art movement, there would be far more discussion to analyse.

4. Give up on your summer. Ok, not quite, but yeah, I didn’t go away after AS exams. I planned small things in London and went to Reading Festival but nothing huge. You’re going to need days of sitting at home researching where to even find research. Once you’ve located books you need, there’ll probably only be one copy in the whole of your city and it’ll be on the complete other side and you’ll need to take three trains and a bus to get to the library. Once there, something will happen like they won’t have posted online that they close at midday on a Friday so the whole trip was a waste. Or you’ll have forgotten to order the book with 48 hours notice (yeah, make sure you do that). Then you’ll need time to collate all the notes you’ve made and write it into a cohesive essay. So all in all, you’ll need time. There’ll be moments when you’ll think to yourself the deadline is in October, I’m sure I’ll have time between July and then… But you’ll soon figure out that when you get back to school at the beginning of September, none of your other teachers really care that you’re doing an EPQ and will pile on the homework. So it’s a good idea to have the bulk done before you go back to school.

Example of my schedule. Scheduling is ev.ery.thing.

5. Be aware of deadlines. Not just the EPQ ones, which kind of goes without saying, but also other ones in your academic life. Coursework deadlines are often around Christmas time too or maybe earlier so you’ll often be doing EPQ at the same time as this. A lot of people who do the EPQ often apply for Oxbridge of Medicine, as their application deadline is also mid-October. My EPQ presentation was on the 14^th and so was the Cambridge personal statement deadline. Intense. Stay on top of it all!

6. Write your bibliography/ production log/ resource log as you go along. It’s tempting to just write the essay and deal with all the admin-stuff later. But I’d advise against this. Firstly, your will lose track of which resources you’ve used, how useful they were, what pages you used for which quote… It becomes a lot to deal with all together. So just add the footnotes as you’re doing it. Secondly, you will be finishing your EPQ right in the middle of your first term in year 13 and you don’t want to be panicking about a page number you can’t find. Another thing is that most referencing styles want the date you accessed a web-page to prove it was really there when you saw it (just in case it is taken offline at a later date) so make sure you keep track of webpages too. 

7. Research how to reference. Insanely boring but necessary. Each academic subject has different conventions so find out which ones you need to use before you do all your footnotes and the bibliography, or you’ll just have to go back and change it all. Bear in mind there are conventions for literally every time of information.

Me looking like a Cool Kid outside the V&A's National Art Library

8. Be careful not to plagiarise. It can be really tempting to read a great phrase and slip it in to your work, passing it off as your own… Tempting, but highly stupid. Exam boards now have technology which finds if phrases are too similar to other works they have on their system. More and more people (like me) post their work online (mainly to show off about how damn hard they’ve worked on something) but there’s not point plagiarising other students. Chances are you’ll be caught, and their stuff probably won’t be worth it. It’s even more stupid to plagiarise from published academic works as you can just include it in your bibliography and get points for that anyway.

9. Basically, do it. History of Art wasn’t offered as an A-level in my school, so I had never actually written an essay in this field. It was intimidating because I didn’t really know where to start. But as I spent hours in the National Art Library, I realised I really wasn’t getting bored, in fact, I loved it. It helped secure the idea in my mind that this was really what I wanted to do for a degree. The EPQ will really help prepare you for University and higher academia because of the reliance on your own time management and research which you don’t really get from secondary school. I’d really recommend it as it will (hopefully!) give you confidence in your abilities and a deeper understanding of your chosen subject.

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My EPQ: Realism

I completed my Extended Project Qualification in October 2015. I received an A*. The title was ‘To what extent was political change the most important factor in influencing the creation of Realism in the 1800s?’ Here is an excerpt from the 5000 word essay I wrote, along with the presentation. I have included my bibliography below.

See the presentation here... 

Read my tips on the EPQ here... 

Courbet, The Burial at Ornans (1850)

…His first great masterpiece was The Burial at Ornans (1850) which Chu (2010) states ‘caused a scandal at The Salon of 1850-1.’ The painting portrayed normal townspeople (rather than historical figures or famous aristocrats of the time) in a huddled, messy composition. Not only did the presentation of the piece concern critics, for it was too large and seemed to have no central figure, there was a definite unsettling political undercurrent to the work. Courbet’s jumbled composition was seen as ‘egalitarian’ and ‘republican’, portraying ‘equal representation’ (Chu, 2010). After gaining credibility and fame following the success of Burial, Courbet began to write political essays and dissertations on social and democratic policies. His ideas about the position of the lower classes, and the inevitability of their fate is a clear theme in all of his pieces. With The Stonebreakers (1850), Courbet hinted at this by depicting two men of indistinguishable age, which could be showing the inescapable life of a worker. Courbet described this as “Alas, in that class, that is how one begins and that is how one ends up,” (Chu, 2010). Another method that Courbet used in this painting was to shield the faces of the men, thereby dehumanising them and evoking how the workers were treated like machines, and were not valued for their individual human characteristics. A similar method can be seen in both Millet’s The Sower (1850) and The Gleaners (1857), both of which present their subjects in a way that hides their identities, thus alluding to the fact that they represent thousands. Courbet’s influence was vast, because of his revolutionary ideas about subject matter and portrayal. Novotny (2002) stated that ‘a list of the painters in whom [Courbet’s influence] is discernible would include practically all the leading figures.’ This, therefore, is a valuable starting point from where to discern the driving forces behind the Realist movement, as Courbet was clearly its primary creator.

Jean Francois Millet 

…Whereas Courbet’s paintings were quite overtly political –which was unsurprising considering his later involvement with the radical socialist government: the Paris Commune of 1871- and often aimed to ‘shock the bourgeois’ (Gombrich, 1950), Millet’s paintings seem to have a more subtle agenda. Born in 1814, Millet became renowned for his dedicated depiction of peasant life, and would later be called the ‘founder’ of the nineteenth-century approach to these subjects (Chu, 2010).  Whereas Courbet’s work often seems to invoke sympathy, Millet’s demands respect. Although the majority of his peasants are bent –often carrying produce or gleaning a field- they do not seem to cower under their burdens, but have a certain determination about them. Millet was able to portray the hardship and brutal truth of life as a peasant but he was also able to interlace this with dignity. Perhaps it is for this reason that, even more than Courbet, Millet is seen as ‘the model of twentieth-century social realism’ (Eitner, 2002)…

…Thus, the motivations behind these two most prominent Realist painters seem to range from political to social. Initially, it seems from analysing their paintings that Courbet was more politically motivated whereas Millet seemed to have a more emotional, social agenda. But there were other factors which may have affected them more subtly, and these factors will be analysed in the ensuing essay…

Daumier, The Fugitives (1850) 

…Perhaps one of the defining characteristics of life at the time- in the mid 1800s- was the constant political upheaval that came with the revolutions that spread across Europe, which is why Realism is thought to be politically fuelled. The biggest example of political change was the 1848 Revolutions.

…In Sicily the workers of Palermo rose up in January 1848 with a cry of “To arms, sons of Sicily; our united force will be invincible!” (Pearce, Stiles, 2008) Spurred on by this the rest of Europe soon broke out into revolution, the majority of which were led by the workers. Although the Sicilians were also angered by a cholera outbreak in 1846 (for which they blamed government mismanagement), the rest of the revolutionaries shared the same goal: they all wanted liberal reforms and for their respective monarchies to allow them constitutions. As well as this, there had been severe food shortages which soon affected economies across Europe. This contributed to the recession and massive unemployment in France, further increasing the discontent. (Pearce, Stiles, 2008) The political upheaval had a profound effect on the art world. The art from that year’s Salon reflects the impact the events of 1848 had had on the artists. Chu (2010) describes that whilst some artists were deeply affected by the hardship seen in these years of strife, others had been ‘swept up in the republican enthusiasm’ and created artworks with this type of agenda...

Millet, The Winnower, (1868)

…In times of change, art is often produced as a way to capture a people’s collective emotion, whether that be fear, anger, or determination. The art of the Realists best captured this change in the zeitgeist, and Daumier was one such artist. Not to be dismissed as just a caricaturist, Honoré Daumier offered a commentary on 19^th Century social and political life in France. Although satirical, his art was not created for comedic purposes. It often had very poignant messages. It gained much material in the aftermath of the revolutions, as can be seen in The Fugitives (1870), which depicted the mass movement of people, driven by hunger to wander through central Europe in search of food and shelter, (Chu, 2010). Whereas The Fugitives was a clear comment on contemporary events, other Realist artists were more subtle in their messages, although this did not prevent them from being labelled political activists. A way in which the depiction of political ideas was achieved, particularly by Millet, was to portray the peasants in a heroic, quasi-allegorical manner.  For instance in The Sower or The Winnower (1868), the statures of the men seem determined and strong, much like the recent revolutionaries would have been. The critics of the Realists certainly thought their art was political provocation. They attacked Millet’s The Gleaners by saying “the pikes of [the revolutions of] 1793 seem to rise up behind these figures,” (Lorenz,2002) finding it to be a depiction of the recent political turbulence. A similar theme can be sensed in Millet’s The Winnower, in which the worker wears a red hat: the Phrygian slave cap. It was used as an emotive symbol in the 1789 French revolution, and the fact it was being used again in the mid 1800s shows that people still held onto these revolutionary dreams and beliefs and demonstrates that they thought these goals could fully be achieved in the current century (Ansell, 2012)…

Millet, The Gleaners, 1857

Bibliography

·       19^th CENTURY PARIS PROJECT. http://gallery.sjsu.edu/paris/technology [accessed: 19/10/2015]

·       ABE BOOKS- CHU PETRA: http://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/title/courbet/author/chu-petra  [accessed: 20/10/2015]

·       ABE BOOKS- EITNER LORENZ: http://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/author/eitner-lorenz/ [accessed: 20/10/2015]

·       ANSELL, J. (2012) National Gallery Podcasts, Episode Seventy One. Available from: www.nationalgallery.org.uk/podcasts [accessed: 13/10/2015]

·       BROWN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY CENTRE: http://library.brown.edu/cds/paris/chronology4.html [accessed: 19/10/2015]

·       CHAMPA, K. (1991) The Rise of Landscape Painting in France: Corot to Monet. Harry N Abrams Inc.

·       CHU, P (2010) Nineteenth Century European Art. Pearson.

·       DICTIONARY OF ART HISTORIANS: https://dictionaryofarthistorians.org/eitnerl.htm [accessed: 20/10/2015]

·       EITNER, L. (2002) 19^th Century European Painting: David to Cezanne. Westview Press. 

·       FRIED, M.(1992) Courbet’s Realism.  University of Chicago Press.

·       GOMBRICH, E. (1950) The Story of Art. 16th ed. Phaidon.

·       GUSTAVE COURBET BIOGRAPHY: www.gustavecourbet.org/biography.html [accessed: 19/10/2015]

·       H2G2. http://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A585344 [accessed: 19/10/2015]

·       HANSEN, P (2014): http://gbaacademy.com/watch?id=cump0Nxteb4 [accessed: 20/10/15]

·       HISTORY.COM: http://www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution [accessed: 20/10/15]

·       JOHN ATKINSON GRIMSHAW BIOGRAPHY:  http://www.johnatkinsongrimshaw.org/biography.html [accessed: 19/10/2015]

·       LITTLE, S (2004)...Isms, Understanding Art, Bloomsbury.

·       LYONS, R (2012). National Gallery Podcasts, Episode Fifty One. Available from: www.nationalgallery.org.uk/podcasts [accessed: 13/10/2015]  

·       MALPAS, J(1997) Realism. Cambridge University Press.

·       METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/roma/hd_roma.htm [accessed: 19/10/2015]

·       MUSEE D’ORSAY: http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/events/exhibitions/archives/exhibitions-archives/browse/11/article/jules-bastien-lepage-4256.html?tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=252&cHash=84902af512 [accessed: 19/10/2015]

·       NETHERLANDS INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY (2004) https://www.nias.knaw.nl/fellows/year-group-2003-04/doesschate-chu-p-ten [accessed: 20/10/2015]

·       NOVOTNY, F (2002) Painting and Sculpture in Europe 1780-1880. Yale University Press. 

·       PEARCE, R (2006) The Unification of Italy 1815-70. Hodder Education.

·       RAMPLEY, M (2005), Exploring Visual Culture: Definitions, Concepts, Contexts. Edinburgh University Press

·       RUBIN, J (1994) Manet’s Silence and the Poetics of Bouquets. Harvard University Press.

·       THE ART STORY (2010): http://www.theartstory.org/critic-fried-michael.htm [accessed: 20/10/2015]

·       WIKEPEDIA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_historic_inventions#19th_century  [accessed: 21/10/2015]

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Throwback: Fighting History

Throwback to July 2015: Tate Britain's 'Fighting History' exhibition. 

Tate Britain 

Since the very beginning of human-beings, art has allowed large events to be transformed into a single image or sculpture. I think that, as highly visual beings, we need this connection with our pasts to allow us to present to others what we feel is important. From depictions of battles to those of religious stories, artworks often allow us to empathise with the artists’ views on certain political or social events.

John Singleton Copley's The Death of Major Peirson (1784)

This is what Tate Britain’s ‘Fighting History’ aimed to explore. The exhibition did not simply display paintings; many art forms were shown. From The Death of Major Peirson (1784) to a denim jacket from the Battle of Orgreave (1985), the exhibition blurred the lines between created pieces and contemporaneous objects that have become artworks. What is the purpose of these political/social artefacts? Are they there to shock or simply record fact?

A jacket from the Battle of Orgreave (1985) 

 There has been much criticism of the exhibition, particularly of its parameters of what constitutes a ‘history painting’. This I can agree with. A lot of the artworks shown were quite surprising, such as Alma-Tadema’s The Silent Greeting (1989). It was unclear why this was included in the collection. The neoclassical piece does depict a historical scene, but only in the dress and interior. Normally history painting is seen as a more complex theme, where a narrative or event is explored. This oversight was unfortunate, as it took time and attention away from some of the best pieces.

Dexter Dalwood's The Poll Tax Riots (2005)

 Walking in to the first room, eyes are drawn to Dexter Dalwood’s large The Poll Tax Riots (2005). Depicted is Trafalgar Square, the site of the riots of 1990, where around 110 people were injured, and 339 people were arrested. In the background are sections of the Berlin wall. Perhaps slightly obvious in its message, the piece was still an effective way to begin an exhibition on political art.

Steve McQueen's Lynching Tree (2013)

 However, a piece that was not obvious was Steve McQueen’s Lynching Tree (2013). The light box is slightly confusing at first. In fact, I stood opposite it for a few minutes waiting for ‘something to happen’. It is only after I read the description that a slow feeling of both understanding and remorse ensued. The tree in question –near New Orleans- once served as a gallows for slaves. This was one of the most interesting pieces in the exhibition, because of its subtle message. Understanding the context of the photograph is crucial, but it is not explained anywhere in the art- which was a thin line some of the other artworks failed to appreciate. Photography is an interesting medium to be seen in an exhibition such as this. There is such a juxtaposition between these photos and the paintings of artists such as Gavin Hamilton and John Singleton Copley. These artists took such care and time to depict their subjects, but, in present times, photographs which are taken so quickly are often much better, more emotive representations.

Richard Hamilton's Kent State (1970) 

For instance, Richard Hamilton’s Kent State (1970) is simply a photo he took of his television screen which was zoomed in on the dead student. Hamilton said of this that it was “too terrible to submit to arty treatment”. I think this is a really interesting sentiment. It seems to be a very critical view of art, especially for an artist to take. But, considering that these last two photos are the pieces I most appreciated in the entire exhibition, perhaps it is true, that some events should not be turned into an artwork, but should just be displayed for what they are.

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Tales from a Burger Bar: The Mop

Recently I got my first job as an under-paid under-appreciated waitress in a local burger bar and I felt that I had finally become ‘an adult’. I was ecstatic to be getting into the job market and earning a wage even if it was at £6 an hour. I bounced in on my first day ready to be the best damn waitress London had ever seen.

It arose, pretty quickly, that I am a terrible waitress.

Picture this but with far more humiliation 

From the off, I seemed to get everything wrong. When someone came in to enquire about the offers, I happily told them about the lunch deal…that wasn’t available that day as it was a Sunday not a weekday. When someone ordered a drink I promptly forgot their order as I turned to get it from the fridge and had to waddle back with my tail between my legs to ask them again. I took a very long and complicated order at the end of the day, only for it to arise that the kitchen had run out of most of the ingredients and had failed to tell me, meaning I looked like the plonker that had to go back and take the entire order again… spoiler alert: the customers left when they realised they couldn’t get onion rings.

However, none of these faux-pas on a first day are really that bad. The thing that made everything seem so much worse was the presence of my arch rival and simultaneously my role model: The Super Waitress. A stunningly beautiful thirty-year-old from Romania, The Super Waitress was able to be everywhere and do everything. She did it all with a little smirk that just said you are way out of your depth, leave the waitressing to me. Every time I got something wrong she was there to correct me and sort it out. Every time our boss gave us something to do, I’d jump up to do it and find Super Waitress already finishing it.

The first time I walked in, I found Super Waitress drying the cutlery and putting them back in the drawer.

“Can I help with that?” I said beaming my ‘Helpful New Waitress’ smile.

“If you want.” She replied, keeping eye contact as she dried a knife. We stood there for a few minutes, her clanking away with sharp utensils, blocking them from me, and maintaining a stare without blinking.

I reached for another towel and then attempted to get to the wet cutlery, only to find I wouldn’t be able to reach them without manhandling Super Waitress to get her out the way.

Needless to say, I left her to it.

I think it became clear pretty quickly that Super Waitress thought I was the most inept species of human she’d ever encountered. One time I cleaned a table for about five minutes, surveyed my face in the reflection appraisingly, and sauntered away, only to turn around and find Super Waitress re-cleaning it. I didn’t ask her why but I’m sure she’d found a speckle of dust somewhere that didn’t meet her Super Standards.

On my second day there came my Ultimate Challenge when our boss asked us to mop the floor. I’d seen Super Waitress do it flawlessly (of course) at least three times so I assumed she’d take this one. When there was a pause, she rose her eyebrows at me and lifted up a pack of cigarettes.

“I’m going for a smoke.” She declared.

Right, so that left me and The Mop.

Listen, I’ve done house work, okay? I’ve washed dishes, made my bed, vacuumed, swept, mowed the lawn… Just me mopping the floor has never really occurred.

I wrestled the mop out from the back. Realising how heavy the whole bucket-and-mop thing was, I just took the mop out, and dragged it across the floor to the door of the restaurant.

Super Waitress had resurfaced to watch me standing at the front appraising how I’d begin. She rose her eyebrows again and I realised it was now or never.

 

(NB: Not to scale...)

Taking a deep breath, I whooshed the mop around me.

“Now how are you going to get out?” Super Waitress asked.

I looked down to see I had mopped the floor into a little rectangle around me. I was stuck with a moat of soaking wet water surrounding me, with my back to a wall.

Super Waitress marched over, grabbed the mop from me, and whilst I stood for two minutes waiting for my moat to dry so I could escape, she cleaned the entire burger bar.

I wasn’t asked to mop the floor again.

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