Arthur Jafa & Richard Prince: Helter Skelter

American grit and grift, myths and perversions: examining the long-form creative conversation between Jafa and Prince

Born a decade apart, American artists Arthur Jafa (born 1960) and Richard Prince (born 1949) share an ethos of lawlessness when it comes to the appropriation and manipulation of images siphoned from movies, pulp novels, comic books, YouTube videos, sci-fi stories, album covers, record sleeves, rock 'n' roll posters, first-edition Beat volumes, news reels, celebrity memorabilia and social media posts. Both artists chart peculiar topographies specific to the United States: Jafa's reflecting his identity as an African American man coupled with a mission to invigorate Black cinema and art; Prince's hovering between a self-conscious critique of white masculinity and a fascination with the underbelly of the American psyche. This volume creates a dialogue between the two artists, which unfolds through a series of thematic juxtapositions--combinations of works by both artists that illuminate each of their practices and tease out shared subject matter and mutual obsessions.