Colonial archives from the 19th and 20th centuries the world over are replete with images that glorify the coloniser as a hunter, and ferocious predators as the hunted. The orchestrated images – featuring a seated white man and his entourage with the bare skin and/or skull of the coveted animal arranged on the ground – encapsulate the power dynamics of the colonial empire. To anticipate such an image in the exhibition Three Tired Tigers curated by Lucas Morin at Jameel Arts Centre is inevitable. Yet, in the exhibition, set across five galleries on the first floor, this kind of image is conspicuously absent. In conversation with STIR, Morin referenced a counterpoint: Risham Syed’s mixed media installation Cheetah and a Stag with Two Indians (after Cheetah and a Stag with Two Indians by George Stubbs, 1764) (2024). The textile installation reconfigures a scene painted by Stubbs where an Indian cheetah gifted to King George III is cajoled to hunt a stag. To the utter dismay of the royal entourage, the cheetah refuses to indulge in such an attack.

A regular stroll across the streets of the Middle East or Central Asia might lead to multiple encounters with cats, making one wonder about the conventional binary between “pests and pets”. Specific cultural perceptions define how animals are viewed: they may be revered in one place and despised in another. Three Tired Tigers focuses on urban and rural spaces, particularly in the Global South, where animals are ubiquitous in everyday existence. The dynamics of human-animal coexistence vary across these histories and locations, emphasising that there is no unidimensional model for living together—only a rich diversity of experiences to be celebrated.

Morin said of the show, “The exhibition was actually inspired by the street cats of Dubai—even though the city was not designed for them, they are everywhere. Dubai is a city I find fascinating for its unique coexistence. Animals carve out spaces to thrive within the gaps of urban design and local communities show incredible care and compassion for street animals. Dubai's stray cats have a lot to teach us.” The curator carefully leads viewers through the gallery spaces which are divided into five sections: The Zoo and the Museum: where institutions control and classify; On the Street: spaces of encounter, care and coexistence; The Palace and the Square: where animals meet power and history; At the City's Edges: spaces of rejection and relegation and The Sky: spaces of surveillance and freedom.

Some of the exhibited artists have dedicated their life’s work to animals. Lin May Saeed, featured with a five-metre panel Hawr al-Hammar/Hammar Marshes (2020), illustrating the wetland ecosystem of Southeast Iraq, synonymous with the Garden of Eden, was herself an animal rights activist. Yet most artists focus on animals incidentally, arriving at this theme through politics, history, economics or urbanism. For example, Walid Raad and the Atlas Group’s set of seven pigmented inkjet prints We Have Never Been So Populated (1997-2020), tells of invasive bird species weaponised by militias during the Lebanese Civil War. Walid Siti’s single-channel video The Troubled Bear and the Palace (2019) chances upon mountain bears while looking into the architecture of Saddam Hussein's former palaces.

Talking about the range of materials and materiality at play, Morin mentions, “The diversity of mediums feels natural when working with so many contemporary artists—each develops their own language, creating playful and surprising exhibitions where visitors can connect with works differently. I appreciate how a research-based piece, with maps and diagrams, can coexist alongside an abstract glass sculpture. Each tells its story uniquely and together they complement one another.” The entrance of the exhibition showcases a contemporary twist to Mithila paintings by women painters Madhumala Mandal, Rebati Mandal, Selo Yadav, Sudhira Karna and Sumitra Yadav, who are a part of Janakpur Women’s Development Centre in Nepal. Folk art traditions have long celebrated the idea of coexistence between animals and humans. Yet, in the wake of gender, caste and class discrimination, and the ecological crisis, this balance does not exist anymore. The works show a variety of animals including cats and elephants painted in vibrant hues to conjure an alternate and harmonious universe in comparison to the current state of fauna.

Heba Y. Amin’s extensive research-based installations have mined colonial history to underline how birds were used as spies to carry out the act of surveillance at British colonial territories in North Africa and Palestine. As Birds Flying (2016), a single-channel video  by Amin is an embodiment of a similar event. In 2013, a fisherman along the Nile River encountered a stork with an unusual electronic device attached to its wing. Suspecting the bird to be an Israeli spy, he reported it, leading to the stork’s brief detention under accusations of espionage. However, investigations revealed the device was merely a tracking tool deployed by Hungarian researchers to study the bird's migratory patterns across Africa. As Birds Flying revisits this incident, which gained widespread attention in the media during a time of heightened surveillance in post-revolutionary Egypt. In her film, Amin amalgamates altered scenes from Adel Imam’s 1995 satirical film Birds of Darkness with aerial drone footage of storks migrating over disputed wetlands in occupied Galilee. Celebrated as symbols of liberation in oral narratives and literature, these birds—gliding effortlessly above borders— highlight the political reality of control and surveillance of the open skies.

Kasper Bosmans’ mural The Critter Pavilion (2024), commissioned by Art Jameel, digs into the history of locusts to uncover the colonial origins of entomology. The artwork incorporates an architectural element referencing the 1878 Paris Exposition and the first “Insect Pavilion” that glorified European scientific and colonial achievements. By the late 19th century, European imperial powers had turned their focus to insects: a challenge to their colonial ambitions. Swarms of locusts devastated key export crops like cotton. In West Asia, locusts migrated vast distances, from the Indus plains to East Africa, traversing the Arabian Peninsula. During the Second World War, the British military launched the first operation to control locusts with chemical pesticides in present-day UAE.

The last word belongs to the curator who believes in thinking like a cat for the following reasons: “A better understanding of nature and our environments to help us recognise ourselves as part of a complex ecosystem rather than separate from it. Ultimately, what benefits urban animals—shared public spaces and communities of care—also benefits all of us.”