‘Subling’ by Tom McKendrick

This small ceramic sculpture comes from an edition of 50 ceramic submarines created by Tom McKendrick in 1990 to celebrate Glasgow City of Culture. The ‘subling’ is a free-standing, small scale sculpture, with a small copper-coloured propeller at the stern. It has exaggerated rivets and panel seams which look like they have Verdigris patina. The nine oval openings stamped out along the length of the ‘subling’ were likely placed to mimic hatches of a British T-class submarine.

Tom McKendrick is a Scottish artist who worked in John Brown’s Shipyard in Clydebank, an experience which shaped his creative path. His evocative artworks reflect his time on the shipyard and often commemorate shipbuilding trades and crafts which are now lost or on the brink of being forgotten.

‘Subling’ is a part of the Scottish Maritime Museum’s Art Collection and the 3D model was created as a part of Scanning The Horizon digitisation project.