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In America: Remember

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In America: Remember
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi at the installation
LocationWashington, D.C.

In America: Remember was a public art installation by American artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg.[1] The exhibition, on display from September 17 to October 3 2021 in Washington, D.C., honored Americans who died in the COVID-19 pandemic by blanketing a portion of the National Mall near the Washington Monument with over 600,000 small white flags, one for each life lost.[2]

Description

In America: Remember was a followup to a previous outdoor installation by Firstenberg near the D.C. Armory and RFK Stadium in 2020, titled In America: How Could This Happen...[1][3] The original exhibition contained over 200,000 white plastic flags echoing the appearance of the headstones of Arlington National Cemetery, and reflected the estimated death toll from COVID-19 in the United States at that time. Flags from the 2020 exhibition were collected by the Smithsonian for the National Museum of American History.[1] After that exhibition was complete, Firstenberg contacted the National Park Service to create a larger version at the National Mall.[4]

The 2021 version of the memorial covered 20 acres of grass on the National Mall with over 600,000 white flags, and also contained a large billboard displaying the number of Americans who had lost their lives to COVID-19.[4] The number on the display was updated during the exhibition to reflect the increasing death toll.[1] The number of flags reached 700,000 by the end of the exhibition.[5]

Visitors to the physical installation as well as to its website were invited to dedicate personalized messages to those they had lost. Volunteers would then write the names of the deceased along with the messages on individual flags at the installation. The location of each flag, as well as a photo of the flag and its personalized message, could be seen on the exhibition's website, along with a live webcam of the exhibition.[2]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Smithsonian 2021.
  2. ^ a b In America: Remember 2021.
  3. ^ NPR 2020.
  4. ^ a b NPR 2021.
  5. ^ Washington Post 2021.

References

  • "In America: Remember". 2021.
  • Lefrak, Mikaela (October 23, 2020), This Artist Installed Over 220,000 White Flags In D.C. To Represent COVID-19 Deaths, NPR
  • Franklin, Jonathan (September 17, 2021), More Than 600,000 White Flags On The National Mall Honor Lives Lost To COVID, NPR
  • Thulin, Lisa (September 30, 2021), "In D.C., 695,000 Flags—and Counting—Memorialize the Americans Who Have Died of Covid-19", Smithsonian Magazine
  • Firstenberg, Suzanne Brennan (October 1, 2021), "Opinion: What the 700,000 flags I put on the National Mall really mean", Washington Post
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