9/11 Tribute at Dark Elegy

by Sue Giustino

On September 11th 2021, Suse Lowenstein will once again host an event of remembrance in her Sculpture Garden, “Dark Elegy”. Cellist Jeanne Fox, a Hudson Valley resident and frequent Montauk visitor, will once again perform in the garden among the sculptures. Visitors are welcome to come to Suse’s home-11 East Lake Drive – at 12pm, and as in the past please feel free to bring a lawn chair or blanket.

The sculpture garden “Dark Elegy” depicts emotional reactions of surviving family members, dealing with their first-hand experiences of loss as a result of terrorism.  Suse and Peter Lowenstein tragically lost their son Alexander, a student at Syracuse University, on December 21, 1988 when Pan Am flight 103, from London to NY went down over Lockerbie, Scotland in an act of terrorism. Dark Elegy is a product of Suse Lowenstein’s artistic grievance therapy during the months and years following their loss. Starting with herself, she created a self-sculpture of the moment she heard the news of her son’s death. Wanting to expand the project to include as many family members as possible, she extended an invitation to all family members of the victims of flight 103; about eighty mothers, daughters, wives, sisters, and grandmothers accepted the invitation to pose. The garden, depicting raw emotions shared by all surviving family members of any act of terrorism, can be viewed daily from 10am-12pm at the Lowenstein’s home at 11 East Lake Dr.