The Poor Image of EMRATA

Critical Art Studies on Collage

Paper photo collage on paper , 22” X 54”

Erika Yuen, 2021

Artist Statement

Cheap, printed, low resolution copies of internet stories and news headlines cultivate a broken telephone narrative of profit, consent, and ownership told by model Emily Ratajkowski in her article, Buying Myself Back, from New York Magazine. Inspired by Hito Steyerl’s In Defense of the Poor Image, 2009, and the chaos of Lombardi Mind Maps, The Poor Image of EMRATA critiques the mass distribution, framed abstraction, and capitalist economy of poor images through paradoxical appropriation. As it attempts to liberate Em Rata, who is both a commodity and consumer of its wealth, it unveils the duality of poor images: their ability to be simultaneously representational yet destructively uncredible.

Close Up Shots