Pier Paolo Pasolini’s unfinished novel ‘Petroleo’ is a hybrid novel that began an attempted synthesis of fact, fiction, and political commentary surrounding the oil industry, its links to state and corporate corruption, and the violence underpinning capitalist systems. Shortly before completing the project Pasolini was murdered in 1975 on the beach in Ostia, where he was beaten and run over 21 times with his own car. The circumstances remain unresolved and widely contested, with speculation that his death may have been connected to his political provocations or to the sensitive material he was developing in the novel.

“Rock Drill” was a sculpture created by American-born sculptor Jacob Epstein in 1913. Depicting a plaster figure seated atop an actual rock drill, this early example of the ‘readymade’ was intended as a celebration of modern machinery and masculine virility. In 1940, however, having been horrified by the legacy of World War 1, Epstein reinterpreted the sculpture much more negatively: he mutilated it, sold the drill and amputated the figure. In contrast to the power and virility exuded by the full figure, the truncated version appears defenseless and melancholic, evocative of the wounded soldiers returning home from the trenches in startling numbers. “Here is the armed sinister figure of today and tomorrow. No humanity, only the terrible Frankenstein’s monster we have made ourselves into.”

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