Jacob C. Hammes

Deep Imagination Therapy is the term I use to refer to my hypnosis practice as a method for generating collaborative work with other artists. This is a bit tongue in cheek due to the fact that I insist on never approaching real therapy, but that the experience itself can be therapeutic. For some, the experience frees the mind of some of the boundaries surrounding their creative selves. Others have a less intense experience.

For the performance and resulting exhibition at JJ Morgan & Co. (Wellington, NZ) I induced a deep hypnotic trance on an artist named (???) who then drew images based on scenarios suggested to her during her trance. These suggestions are open-ended in that i never tell the artist what to draw, but rather what to think about, what sensory information to experience, and based on that framework, the artist draws or paints an image. Typically these images are looser and more gestural than what an artist is capable of and lean heavily on the abstract, and my secondary role is to use my own sensibilities to determine if the image is working, if i need to make other suggestions, or if we need to move on. I also have the responsibility of determining when the work is finished.