This project explores the historical and material significance of tar and tarmac in Scotland, tracing their use from prehistory through the industrial age to the present day. Tar has played a foundational role in shaping the Scottish landscape—both literally and metaphorically. As an elemental substance, it was crucial to early waterproofing techniques and later became a silent but vital force in the shipbuilding industry. Its durable, water-resistant properties enabled the creation of bitumen paints and protective coatings that supported Scotland’s maritime dominance.

The invention of tarmacadam by John Loudon McAdam marked a pivotal shift in Scottish industry. As transport systems modernized and roads were paved for vehicles, the very nature of national infrastructure—and by extension, industrial growth—was transformed. Tar, once a tool of advancement, became a double-edged material: essential to progress, yet implicated in the decline that followed.

As the shipbuilding industry collapsed, many of the communities it once sustained were plunged into cycles of poverty and neglect. Today, these areas in cities like Glasgow still bear the physical scars—crumbling roads, cracked tarmac, and urban spaces left in disrepair. This project considers tar not only as a material, but as a witness to and participant in Scotland’s industrial rise and fall—a substance that both built and bound, yet also fractured and failed.