July 2025 – The Drouth

18th July 2025

Published by TheDrouth

TENDING AN OLIVE TREE by Michael Mersinis

An exploration of the entanglement of art, ecology, and geopolitical violence through the translocation of a Palestinian olive tree sapling to a Scottish gallery space. Drawing on many sources including Aristophanes’ Peace, Michael Mersinis positions the olive tree sapling not as an object of aesthetic contemplation, but as a living, contested agent that disrupts dominant narratives of peace and belonging.

18th July 2025

Published by TheDrouth

RAIN, STEAM AND SPEED by Huddled McMasses

The American founding fathers took classical Rome as the model for their new Republic. Huddled McMasses examines the development of that story in a tale of two films with classical, particularly Roman, avatars - Gladiator I and II. He sees American popular culture as a mirror held up to the current drift to greater authoritarianism and more rigid patriarchical political structures.