"IN AMERICA How Could This Happen...," flag

"IN AMERICA How Could This Happen...," flag

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Description (Brief)
White plastic flag with metal pole from the "In America: How could this happen..." installation (11/2020). The flag is personalized, "Dr. Choong Hong Kim / 7/29/2020 / We miss you!"
As COVID-19 deaths spiked in 2020, Suzanne Firstenberg’s public art installation "In America: How could this happen…" memorialized the number of people in the United States who lost their lives to the Corona virus pandemic as of November of 2020. The work (taking up 4 acres of the Washington, DC Armory grounds) represented the magnitude of the loss and also humanized the individual experience. At the time, more than 250,000 people were represented through individual white flags, that together provided a visualization of the pandemic sweeping across the country.
Location
Currently not on view
Object Name
commemorative flag
flag
date made
2020
Physical Description
plastic; tyvek; metal; polyvinyl chloride (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 38 cm x 12.5 cm; 14 31/32 in x 4 29/32 in
ID Number
2021.0014.01
catalog number
2021.0014.01
accession number
2021.0014
See more items in
Work and Industry: General History
Data Source
National Museum of American History
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