Age of Exploration : Slaves to Silk - by Fion Gunn (Ireland/UK)
Silk, acrylic, mixed media. 72 cm x 72 cm x 15cm, 2018,
Fion : "Like many people I have a fascination with silk, its lightness, its gentleness on the skin, its cool protection from the sun - I had never considered the dark side of its trade.
In Liverpool’s Museum of Slavery (in the UK) I read of the triangular trade of silk slaves and sugar and felt a chill of horror. European and Chinese merchants traded silk with Arabs and certain African rulers in return for slaves. These Human beings were then transported to the Caribbean where they were traded for sugar and forced to work on sugar plantations in dreadful conditions.
The sugar was transported to Europe where it would rot the teeth of those who could afford it. This was truly a trade carried out in the heart of darkness and continues to this day under different guises - different commodities, but the same issue of human slavery underlies it."
Fion : "Like many people I have a fascination with silk, its lightness, its gentleness on the skin, its cool protection from the sun - I had never considered the dark side of its trade.
In Liverpool’s Museum of Slavery (in the UK) I read of the triangular trade of silk slaves and sugar and felt a chill of horror. European and Chinese merchants traded silk with Arabs and certain African rulers in return for slaves. These Human beings were then transported to the Caribbean where they were traded for sugar and forced to work on sugar plantations in dreadful conditions.
The sugar was transported to Europe where it would rot the teeth of those who could afford it. This was truly a trade carried out in the heart of darkness and continues to this day under different guises - different commodities, but the same issue of human slavery underlies it."
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Age of Exploration : Slaves to Silk - by Fion Gunn (Ireland/UK)
Silk, acrylic, mixed media. 72 cm x 72 cm x 15cm, 2018,
Fion : "Like many people I have a fascination with silk, its lightness, its gentleness on the skin, its cool protection from the sun - I had never considered the dark side of its trade.
In Liverpool’s Museum of Slavery (in the UK) I read of the triangular trade of silk slaves and sugar and felt a chill of horror. European and Chinese merchants traded silk with Arabs and certain African rulers in return for slaves. These Human beings were then transported to the Caribbean where they were traded for sugar and forced to work on sugar plantations in dreadful conditions.
The sugar was transported to Europe where it would rot the teeth of those who could afford it. This was truly a trade carried out in the heart of darkness and continues to this day under different guises - different commodities, but the same issue of human slavery underlies it."
Fion : "Like many people I have a fascination with silk, its lightness, its gentleness on the skin, its cool protection from the sun - I had never considered the dark side of its trade.
In Liverpool’s Museum of Slavery (in the UK) I read of the triangular trade of silk slaves and sugar and felt a chill of horror. European and Chinese merchants traded silk with Arabs and certain African rulers in return for slaves. These Human beings were then transported to the Caribbean where they were traded for sugar and forced to work on sugar plantations in dreadful conditions.
The sugar was transported to Europe where it would rot the teeth of those who could afford it. This was truly a trade carried out in the heart of darkness and continues to this day under different guises - different commodities, but the same issue of human slavery underlies it."
Ref:
Date:
Location:
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Main Gallery
Age of Exploration : Slaves to Silk - by Fion Gunn (Ireland/UK)
Silk, acrylic, mixed media. 72 cm x 72 cm x 15cm, 2018,
Fion : "Like many people I have a fascination with silk, its lightness, its gentleness on the skin, its cool protection from the sun - I had never considered the dark side of its trade.
In Liverpool’s Museum of Slavery (in the UK) I read of the triangular trade of silk slaves and sugar and felt a chill of horror. European and Chinese merchants traded silk with Arabs and certain African rulers in return for slaves. These Human beings were then transported to the Caribbean where they were traded for sugar and forced to work on sugar plantations in dreadful conditions.
The sugar was transported to Europe where it would rot the teeth of those who could afford it. This was truly a trade carried out in the heart of darkness and continues to this day under different guises - different commodities, but the same issue of human slavery underlies it."
Fion : "Like many people I have a fascination with silk, its lightness, its gentleness on the skin, its cool protection from the sun - I had never considered the dark side of its trade.
In Liverpool’s Museum of Slavery (in the UK) I read of the triangular trade of silk slaves and sugar and felt a chill of horror. European and Chinese merchants traded silk with Arabs and certain African rulers in return for slaves. These Human beings were then transported to the Caribbean where they were traded for sugar and forced to work on sugar plantations in dreadful conditions.
The sugar was transported to Europe where it would rot the teeth of those who could afford it. This was truly a trade carried out in the heart of darkness and continues to this day under different guises - different commodities, but the same issue of human slavery underlies it."
Ref:
Date:
Location:
Photographer: