In October 2020, social practice artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg created an installation of 150,000 white flags outside of RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., to honor the Americans lost to COVID-19. Now, covering 20 acres of grass beneath the Washington Monument, Firstenberg has placed more than 670,000 flags for that very same reason. In America: Remember, is an art installation project. Firstenberg told NPR the enormity of the project was a compulsion, and not what she originally set out to do, “I didn’t purposefully start out to do a large-scale installation. My outrage led me,” she said.

The installation will run from Sept. 17 to Oct. 3, 2021, and for those “who cannot visit in person,” a website has been set up for them to dedicate a memorial message that will appear on our nation’s mall. It is a powerful piece of work and a stark reminder of what hundreds of thousands of deaths look like. Firstenberg says she was moved to action after hearing Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick ruminate about how grandparents needed to be willing to give up their lives in order to keep our economy humming along. "That really disturbed me. I just felt as though someone had to do something to make a statement that with all these people dying, we had to value each of these lives as well.”

Firstenberg says the toughest part of the project was that based on pre-delta predictions, she had originally ordered 630,000 flags and was forced to order 60,000 more as the numbers rose.

The sight of the flags is powerful, but there is more than just the imagery. There are real messages that bring home the fact that every single one of these white flags represents someone that was loved: a parent, a friend, a child.

A view from atop the Washington Monument:

Democratic Rep. Andy Kim of New Jersey posted detailed images of some of the messages he saw. Warning: It is heartbreaking.

And there is video.