‘The Price of Sugar- Tate & Lyle’s’ (2021) by Year 4 Coral Class ~Felt Tip and Oil Pastel~
In topic work, Year 4 Coral class have been learning about the impact of the British Empire and its role in the triangular slave trade. We have considered the countries impacted around the world and the trauma still felt today. We have also been learning about fair trade products in today’s world and the ethics of trade around the globe.
For critical study and inspiration, we based our artwork on the Pop Art Movement of the 1950’s and 60’s. We studied artist Andy Warhol’s iconic Campbell’s Soup Cans that takes an everyday object and represents it in a repeated pattern using bright and vibrant colour.
We chose Tate and Lyle’s sugar bags to represent our everyday object due to its role in the triangular slave trade. The company denies its roots lie in slavery and points to the fact that it was only established after the abolition of slavery however history shows that fortunes were made from the sugar trade and the by-product of slavery and labour exploitation.
For their colour schemes, children chose to represent the Tate & Lyle sugar bags in the bright coloured flags of the countries that had been impacted by the suffering of slavery during the rule of the British Empire.
Campbell’s Soup Cans (1962) by Andy Warhol
See the individual art pieces in the gallery below:-
