For Mouza Al Hamrani, it started with a camera roll full of cats.
Like many devoted pet owners, the Emirati illustrator and multimedia designer has accumulated thousands of photos of her feline companions over the years. There are pictures of them sleeping, eating, staring out of windows, squabbling with one another and striking adorable poses.
Most people leave such images buried on their phones, but Al Hamrani has chosen to turn them into art instead.
Her upcoming mini solo exhibition, Minor Events Involving Cats, places her beloved pets at the centre of an imaginary world filled with shifting alliances, territorial disputes and even some household drama.
“It started off as a collection of photos that I have on my phone of little moments that I think are paintable,” Al Hamrani tells The National. “Surprisingly, or not surprisingly, a lot of them were of my cats.”
The two-day exhibition, taking place at Jebal Al Balad Cafeteria in Sharjah on Saturday and Sunday, features a series of paintings inspired by the everyday lives of Memao, Pimpao and Batboot. But rather than straightforward pet portraits, Al Hamrani has constructed a world where the cats become characters with distinct personalities, ambitions and even histories.
Al Hamrani says that when visitors enter the exhibition, they will first be introduced to the cats and the fictional lore surrounding them. Next they will encounter scenes depicting the animals interacting with one another and with members of the artist's family.
“I've given it a bit of a cat politics tone,” she says. “Little conquests of the living room and other spaces, the fight for food, that sort of thing.”
The concept emerged from years of storytelling between Al Hamrani and her brother, Ahmed, who developed increasingly elaborate backstories for the felines.
“My brother and I create a lot of ridiculous lore surrounding the cats,” she says. “Two of our cats were fighting and it looked like it could be a scene from a Greek tragedy; another looked very Renaissance-like. And we thought it would be funny to give it that sort of depiction.”
One cat, she says, was imagined as “an accidental royal family member that was lost and brought to the UAE”. The stories stem from what Al Hamrani describes as a desire to impose human narratives on to animals that are completely unaware of them, creating scenarios she finds amusingly absurd.
Humour has long been an important part of her artistic practice. While she works professionally in the arts through her role at Sharjah Art Foundation, and has previously created interactive digital installations, Al Hamrani says she has increasingly found herself drawn towards lighter and more playful forms of storytelling.
“I try to keep it comedic and light-hearted,” she says. After spending nearly a year focused on digital work, Al Hamrani shifted away from the medium and returned to painting.
“I was taking a break because I was doing strictly digital work for almost a year,” she says. “So I went on a painting rampage to kind of detox from that.”
As the collection grew, so did the idea behind it, eventually becoming Minor Events Involving Cats. “I don't want to think, I just want to illustrate the moment and give it the attention that it deserves,” she says.
Nine paintings later, she realised the collection had become substantial enough to warrant a mini exhibition.
At a time when many contemporary art exhibitions tackle serious social, political or environmental themes, Al Hamrani acknowledges that her latest project is quite different.
“I'm entirely giving it the seriousness of an institutional show, but it's a bunch of cats,” she says.
The exhibition will also include a booklet introducing visitors to the feline cast and their fictional world, providing additional context for the paintings and preserving the project beyond its brief two-day run.
“I love a little bit of ridiculous art every once in a while,” says the artist. That desire for escapism is one of the exhibition's guiding principles.
“I enjoy all forms of art, but every once in a while I do need what I call a 'smoke break' to enjoy something a bit absurd before I come back to the serious stuff,” she says.
“People in general should allow a bit more play and unnecessary fantastical narratives in their day-to-day lives.”
For Al Hamrani, the stories surrounding the cats also serve a deeper purpose.
Like many pet owners, she credits her animals with providing comfort during difficult times. The ongoing jokes and fictional narratives she creates with her brother have become a source of connection and relief amid the pressures of everyday life.
“Even though he's going through stuff and I'm going through stuff, this keeps us connected,” she says. “So this is a celebration of that.”
The exhibition's themes are likely to resonate with fellow cat owners, who will undoubtedly recognise many of the behaviours depicted in the paintings. Yet Al Hamrani hopes the appeal extends beyond those who share their homes with felines.
“Whether or not you enjoy cats, I feel like there's something for you,” she says.
Visitors will also have the opportunity to commission portraits of their own cats, something Al Hamrani says she rarely offers. The offer will be first-come, first-served.
The event will feature another cat-inspired creative voice, too. Al Hamrani has invited artist Azim Al Ghussein, illustrator of the graphic novel Becoming Kimmy, which tells the first-person tale of a Sharjah street cat, to discuss his work and contribute to the wider celebration of feline-inspired storytelling.
Al Hamrani says she would like to continue the project, potentially collaborating with cat rescue organisations. “I would love to expand this project further and hopefully get to collaborate with some foster collectives, maybe try to collect donations at some point,” she says.
For Al Hamrani, the project began with a desire to capture the small moments that make up everyday life, which just happened to involve a lot of cats. However, any broader impact it might have is an added bonus.
“If it gives people the incentive to be kinder to cats around, that would be great,” she says.
Minor Events Involving Cats is on June 27 and 28 at Jebal Al Balad Cafeteria in Sharjah
