Kaapse vogels Possibly 1786 - 1788

"Kaapse Vogels" (Cape Birds) was drawn in 1786 by Jan Brandes, using pen and watercolor. Brandes was an employee of the Dutch East India Company, and this image is part of a larger collection documenting his travels in southern Africa. These birds were rendered in a time of burgeoning scientific exploration. Yet, what does it mean to classify and capture the likeness of a living being? The very act of naming—alanda africana, loxia orya—is an attempt to control nature, fitting into the colonial project of claiming territory and resources. Look at the detail in each feather, the specificity of color. These details reflect the intense scrutiny of the colonizer, and speak to an engagement, however problematic, with the African landscape. What is it like for the birds themselves, to become specimens? How does the violence of colonialism echo in the stillness of this page?