Artist Installs More Than 200,000 Flags in DC, Symbolizing COVID-19 Deaths

Thousands and thousands of small white flags stand sentinel outside the D.C. Armory in Southeast, near RFK Stadium. When the breeze blows, the flags ripple in unison like a vast troupe of dancers, swaying between the long shadows cast by the trees that line the armory parade grounds.

Each flag represents an American who died from COVID-19 — 223,059 as of Friday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University.

"It's just so evocative," says Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg, the Bethesda-based artist behind this public art installation.

Firstenberg, 61, began to conceptualize the piece in March, a few weeks into the pandemic, when she heard Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) suggest that elderly Americans could be willing to succumb to the virus in order to preserve the U.S. economy. The sentiment horrified Firstenberg, who has spent 25 years as a hospice volunteer.

"I know how valuable each life is, because I've had the opportunity — the honor — to be with people at a very difficult time in their lives, as they're saying goodbye," she says.

Artist, Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg