Kentigern House

Ministry of Defense building, Brown Street, Glasgow
Funded by the Crown Commissioners
Open competition

Dimensions: 5.4m x 3m
Date: 1985
Media: bronze relief

Brief: a wall sculpture for a gable wall above the main entrance with the subject matter related to Glasgow City.

In considering the project Scott started with Kentigern, the patron saint of Glasgow. He discovered that four stories related to Saint Kentigern are included in a verse in the city’s coat of arms:

Here is the bird that never flew
Here is the tree that never grew
Here is the bell that never rang
Here is the fish that never swam

He was struck by the imagery and how it could be seen as simply as a figure in a landscape that includes water, land and air and how these attributes reflected a suitable subject for the Ministry of Defense to defend.