DUBAI – Hessa Almarzooqi starts her presentation by saying that her alter ego is an angry mouse.
Almarzooqi’s art installation “The Secret Life of Mice” was a part of the “Let’s Take a Walk” tour that was led by Joshua Watts, an associate professor in the College of Arts and Creative Enterprises. The tour took place on May 4 on the Dubai campus and allowed emerging artists to introduce their work incorporated into the campus environment.
Almarzooqi is a senior visual arts student. Her mixed media art project featured a mice house with an intricate interior. “The Secret Life of Mice” was located in the Atrium not far from the “Little Things” project by Hadeel Alshalan, who is also a CACE student in Dubai. Art installations at other locations were created by Alia Al Jasmi, Alia Sharafi, Fatma Kherbash, Maryam Alhaddad and Maryam Bin Turkiah.
Almarzooqi says she initially wanted to use a transparent tube for the mice house that would be attached to a wall, but she couldn’t find a suitable tube. That’s why the creative idea evolved into a mice house that stands in a table.
“People always see mice as disgusting things, but we do not know how mice see us,” Almarzooqi writes on a cork plaque describing her project. “That is why I want to discover and imagine what mice say about us.”
At the end of her presentation, Almarzooqi plays a recording of mice gossiping about people. The recording ends with the mice seeing that people are coming back. The animals start screaming at each other to act normal.
But before the presentation is over, the art viewers get a treat from the mice – a cheesecake.
This story was edited by Yulia Medvedeva.
