Danger Tree statue commemorates Beaumont-Hamel anniversary
Trying to capture 'the presence and the essence' of battlefield experience, says artist
A sculpture of one of the most resounding icons from Beaumont-Hamel has been designed to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the battle on July 1, 2016.
Artist Morgan MacDonald is behind the sculpture of the Danger Tree, for the Memorial Garden at Grenfell Campus in Corner Brook.
"The goal with this project is to get the next generation to think about their heritage, and think about what the First World War experience for Newfoundland was about," said MacDonald.
The Danger Tree stood at roughly the halfway point on the No Man's Land area of the French battlefield, and served as a marker for the soldiers of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, many of whom were killed before reaching it.
"You're trying to capture the presence and the essence of what it would've been like to walk past this marker, to know the feeling of these men, going through that," said MacDonald of his sculpture, although he admitted his rendering may fall short of the actual experience.
"You're never fully going to capture that."