Agama atra (Southern rock agama) Possibly 1777 - 1786

Robert Jacob Gordon made this drawing of the Agama atra, or Southern rock agama. Gordon was an officer of the Dutch East India Company, a powerful organization that held sway over trade and colonization in Africa and Asia. Gordon’s drawings reflect the entangled history of scientific exploration and colonial expansion in the 18th century. During this period, European naturalists sought to classify and document the flora and fauna of newly ‘discovered’ lands. Gordon, like many of his contemporaries, operated within a structure where scientific observation was linked to colonial power. Consider the gaze through which Gordon might have perceived the Agama atra. Was it as a specimen to be cataloged, or as a living being inhabiting a complex ecosystem? What impact did this kind of categorization have on the land, the animals, and the people of South Africa? These are some of the questions that arise when considering the complex relationships between art, science, and colonialism.