The Fallen Branches of the Somme Oak

‘Navigating the Forest is a sculptural installation made up of nine partially sculpted tree branches. The branches used fell from an Oak tree that was brought back to Ireland as an acorn from the Somme in World War 1 by my great grand uncle Robert Bagnell which he planted in West Cork.  Each sculpture a fallen form twisted in agony, a memorial to themselves Inspired by the mythological archetype of the World Tree or Tree of Life, O’Donovan  uses these tree branches as avatars for the earth, carving maps into them that explore how we conceptualise, utilise, exploit and harm the natural resources and ecosystems around us while also portraying the branches as bodies wounded in battle.. The installation creates a ritual grove where viewers can contemplate their own conceptions and use of land and their place in local and global ecologies and at the same time echoes  the no man’s land graveyards of northern France.. An attempt to remember what has been lost.’

Originally commissioned for the Royal Dublin Society - Finding Common Ground Festival in 2026 where it was on show for a month, the sculpture have subsequently been shown for a private viewing at Ann Martin art in Kilcoe and as part of the Skibbereen Arts Festival 2026.

You can read more about the story behind the work in the following by Sarah Horgan for the Irish Examiner:

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/spotlight/arid-41888050.html