Own

"I first encountered the drawings of 18th-century Dutch painter Robert Jacob Gordon at the Rijksmuseum years ago. A soldier and explorer, Gordon created exquisitely detailed landscape drawings that documented the Dutch colonial expansion into South Africa.

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His work has been described as “visual instruments of colonial ideology, reinforcing capitalist expansion and imperial domination. His depictions of South African terrains and peoples aestheticise the appropriation of land and resources, transforming them into objects of scientific and economic interest for European powers. These images helped naturalise colonial rule by portraying the environment as passive, awaiting European exploitation. His art reflects the commodification of nature and indigenous life, aligning with the bourgeois interests of the Dutch Empire. His drawings thus functioned not merely as observation, but as cultural tools of colonial capitalism.”

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I was caught in an ambivalence. The beauty of Gordon’s renderings—his careful documentation of flora, fauna, and place—is framed by a colonial gaze.

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These metal line drawings are my response: they express an ambivalent understanding of this land and landscape… its beauty... and its ownership.

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Stolen. Embraced. Embedded. Loved."

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^BM