Carlo Zanni: Flying False Colors (The Sixth Day) October 22, 2009

This multimedia project loosely refers to the 1975 espionage film 'Three Days of the Condor,' directed by Sydney Pollack, which was one of the first films to suggest a link between covert US military operations and the control of oil production in the Middle East. Like many of Zanni's past projects, 'Flying False Colors' relies on the fluctuations of live digital information to affect the outcome of his artwork. 'Flying False Colors' consists of a flag set in a wind-generating base that Zanni has programmed to blow at particular speeds and in certain directions based on online data streams that correlate to the number of oil barrels requested by a particular country and the current weather in that country's capital. The flag is a replica of the universal Ecology Flag that was designed in 1969 and depicts the Greek symbol of Theta, which derives from thanatos, meaning death. However, Zanni's flag is fabricated with a pigment that will flake off over time as it is blown, leaving a pure white flag by the end of the exhibition.