Cat Dreams



Why do animals sometimes shock us into feeling things we can’t feel for other humans?
Is a different relationship with animals possible if we no longer make them marginal to our lives and deaths?
Why do we sometimes treat humans as animals, and animals as humans?




 






I hope one night you will see these in your dreams, perhaps then your brain will think you are a cat seeing another cat. Perhaps, if I manage to hold a cat as my equal, I can treat other humans as my equals as well.









I started asking for drawings of cats. To be honest, I don’t remember which cat was drawn by whom, but I do remember the stories people told while drawing them. I was told that cats see humans as equals, like another species of a large cat. I was told cats sleep for more than half a day, therefore, I assume that more than half of cats’ lives are spent dreaming.


I hoped to create an abstracted image of how we, humans, depict cats, but that would only reproduce what I already had. Looking at animals as something we should take care of means we see them as weaker than us. In an attempt to depart from the human lens even further, I ask:


How would a cat see itself or another cat?

What do cats dream about?

What do they see when they dream of each other?


Dreams are so vivid we believe them to be true, but once we are out, our memory fails to recollect the images and renders them unworthy of attention. But if we dream the same thing again, we remember, and we believe it to be true at least for that split second.

These drawings, like real life situations, are distorted several times to a point of minimal recognition, but in a dream it all comes together. Dreams don’t have to make sense, a halfway between reality and fantasy, so it’s easier to find relation points with an animal.

Might this also be how cats see people? Afterall, cats see humans as equals.

Humans find their destinies connected with the rest of the natural world, so perhaps animals can teach people how to be more human.