Pandemic Deaths through the Lens of Art

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As I write this, the death count in the United States due to COVID-19 is nearing 700,000.

We’re so far in, so numb, you’ll keep reading and the gravity of it will likely not land.

But if I show you the photos and videos I shot on my phone of nearly that many white flags carefully placed in the expansive grass in the shadow of the Washington Monument, it’ll land, all right.

Pow.

Your eyes will widen. It will give you pause. Because it must.

Credit artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg (and her extraordinary team of volunteers) for giving us art that makes us brace for impact. The eyes can’t even take it all in, this exhibition called In America: Remember.

Because I got off the metro at the Smithsonian stop, I made my approach from the west side of the Washington Monument, meaning I had to walk up the hill to its base in order to access the view I was after. There, surrounded by American flags, I gazed at the whiteness before me with the Lincoln Memorial not too far in the distance.

That first taste went down easy. I had a wide perspective and, while it made me catch my breath, the white flags seemed to meld into one stark blanket under a mottled gray sky.