What did the 695,000 white flags planted in Washington D.C. (U.S.) till October 3, 2021 represent?

From above, the 695,000 white flags shivering in the wind on the National Mall look similar to the gravestones just across the Potomac in Arlington National Cemetery. Each flag, planted in neat squares just north of the Washington Monument, represented one person who had died from Covid-19 in the United States in a temporary art exhibit created by Suzanne Brennan Firstenburg.

Titled “In America: Remember,” this sobering memoria was on view in Washington, D.C. until October 3, 2021.

Numbers have been inescapable during the coronavirus pandemic—case counts, vaccination rates, the death toll. As September 2021, one in 500 Americans died of COVID-19.