Chicago sound artist puts locals under hypnosis

Te Tuhi’s Drawing Wall provides an opportunity for artists to work directly onto a main wall at the entrance to the centre. This ongoing project attracts great attention due to its prominent position.

Te Tuhi’s newly appointed Exhibition Manager and Curatorial Assistant Bruce Philips is in charge of inviting artists to contribute to the Drawing Wall project and this month has invited Chicago based multimedia artist Jacob C. Hammes. This will be the first time the gallery has invited an international artist to contribute to the Drawing Wall project.

Hammes has exhibited and performed extensively in Chicago and has been an instigator and member of a number of sound performance groups and artist run spaces. Often working collaboratively Hammes’ practice escapes conventional classification but as Philips suggests, ‘could be described as operating within the realms of installation and experimental media, hardware hacking, abject sculpture and sound art’.

His current body of work entitled Deep Imagination Therapy investigates the creative unconscious of artistic production by hypnotising his fellow artists as a form of collaboration.

The resulting sound recordings of the hypnotisms reveal synesthesic experiences. For the Drawing Wall Hammes has proposed an interactive sound installation. The installation involves numerous people experiencing synesthesia while under hypnosis and describing the visual appearance of sounds, colour and other sensory perception.

While in New Zealand Hammes will continue his collection of recordings by hypnotising local artists to be added to the installation.

Jacob C. Hammes (Chicago)
Synesthetic Collection #1
10 July – 22 August