One Hundred Portraits of the Great War
Municipality/Province: St. John's, NL
Memorial number: 10006-027
Type: Sculpture
Address: 34 Sudbury Street
Location: Victoria Park
GPS coordinates: Lat: 47.5515329 Long: -52.7183196
Submitted by: Victoria Edwards. Morgan MacDonald.
Photo credit: Alick Tsui Photography
Sculptor Morgan MacDonald's idea for One Hundred Portraits of the Great War came from working on different war memorials in Newfoundland and Labrador, and meeting many people with strong connections to the Battle of Beaumont-Hamel and the First World War. For this memorial, he cast the faces of 100 descendants of Newfoundland Regiment soldiers from the First World War and erected it in Victoria Park in 2018. Inspired by the memory of his own grandfather, Morgan named it One Hundred Portraits of the Great War. It was unveiled on November 4, 2018.
It is a living memory featuring the families who have carried pain, loss, and pride throughout the last century. To make the face casts, Morgan covered the volunteers' eyebrows and hairline with Vaseline to help remove the mask later. Mixing a product called alginate with water, he created a gooey paste that covered their face. MacDonald and assistant Debbie Lake applied the paste to their face, blackened the room and forced the nose and mouth to close. Volunteers had to stay still and breathe through straws while the casting hardened. It took 10 to 15 minutes for the alginate to harden enough for the next step.
Morgan then used microcrystalline foundry wax, dried it and reapplied it until it was about 6.5 mm thick. When the wax hardened, the alginate and plaster were carefully removed and the face cleaned. After casting each volunteer, Morgan arranged the bronze effigies, then welded the casts to an oval frame reminiscent of antique war portraits. It stands more than three-and-a-half meters high and weighs about 2,200 kilograms.
It took sculptor Morgan MacDonald four years and vats of molten bronze to complete One Hundred Portraits of the Great War. He is known for his bronze works and sculptural interpretations of Newfoundland and Labrador’s history and culture. Originally from Corner Brook, he was introduced to the bronze foundry process as a student at Memorial University of Newfoundland's Grenfell Campus. Morgan has completed many military pieces across the province: The Homecoming, and Caribou Memorial Veterans Pavilion, St John's; Danger Tree and Private Hugh McWhirter Statue, Corner Brook; Monument of Honour, Conception Bay South; Cox's Cove War Memorial; and Sergeant Gander and his Handler Memorial; Gander.
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