“Who Are We Hurting” transforms cannabis prohibition into a visceral gallery experience, exposing the human impact of NSW’s laws at Gallery Brave, Surry Hills.
On a quiet street in Surry Hills, the Hibernian Building looms with a quiet authority, its sandstone façade bearing witness to decades of artistic experiment and underground culture. Inside, the space hums with a different kind of tension: the weight of lived experience made tangible. The gallery lights dim, and the scent of raw timber and industrial architecture mingles with an undercurrent of anticipation. Here, Sydney’s newest exhibition, Who Are We Hurting, does more than present art – it places its audience in the direct path of the consequences of cannabis prohibition.
Running from April 18–21, 2026 at Gallery Brave, the show consolidates a decade of activism, public interventions, and cultural stunts executed by the Who Are We Hurting Collective. Unlike typical exhibitions, the work does not ask visitors merely to observe. It challenges, confronts, and, at times, unsettles, presenting cannabis prohibition not as an abstract law but as a lived reality with social, economic, and personal ramifications.
When Policy Becomes Personal
At the centre of the exhibition is a large-scale installation recreating a detention environment, where visitors navigate spaces designed to evoke the experience of those charged or penalised for cannabis-related offences. The stark, almost clinical construction of walls and bars contrasts sharply with the vibrancy of the surrounding gallery, creating a physical tension that mirrors the psychological strain of enforcement.
Through this immersive design, the collective moves the conversation beyond debate about legality and into consideration of human cost. Each corridor, each confined space, acts as a reminder that cannabis laws affect real lives – employment opportunities, travel freedoms, and the very sense of autonomy. It is impossible to walk through these installations without encountering the questions they pose: who bears the burden of prohibition, and who remains invisible?
From Street-Level Protest to Gallery Intervention
The Who Are We Hurting Collective – founded by Will Stolk and Alec “Craze” Zammitt – has spent nearly ten years transforming activism into an evolving form of cultural production. Their work has always operated at the edge of legality and visibility, challenging audiences in the streets before bringing their practice indoors. Projections onto iconic Sydney landmarks, protest convoys against drug-driving laws, temporary grow-room installations, and guerrilla artworks have made their campaigns both unavoidable and impossible to ignore.
By bringing this decade-long practice into Gallery Brave, the collective bridges the gap between activism and art. Visitors encounter not only archival footage, symbolic gestures, and recreated spaces, but also a reflection of broader societal contradictions – the economic, legal, and moral tensions embedded within the enforcement of cannabis prohibition.
The Reality of Cannabis Enforcement in NSW
Despite shifting public sentiment, cannabis remains illegal across most of Australia, including New South Wales. Thousands of Australians each year face fines, criminal charges, court appearances, and the long-term repercussions that ripple through employment, travel, and social life. By embedding these realities into the gallery space, Who Are We Hurting frames enforcement as more than a policy discussion – it becomes a human story, measured in interrupted lives and curtailed freedoms.
Exhibition spaces guide visitors through layered narratives: surveillance and control, the economic and social cost of prohibition, and the dissonance between public perception and legislative reality. By situating activism within a cultural frame, the collective demonstrates that art can serve as both mirror and catalyst – reflecting society while inviting engagement and change.
Beyond Awareness: Invitation to Engage
The exhibition extends beyond passive observation. Visitors are encouraged to access information on current cannabis laws in NSW, connect with advocacy networks, and explore pathways for policy reform. Conversation and participation are central; printed materials, interactive displays, and opportunities to engage with the artists themselves invite reflection and action. In this sense, the gallery becomes a temporary civic forum, where cultural intervention intersects with legal debate and ethical inquiry.
A Fitting Venue: Gallery Brave and the Hibernian Building
Gallery Brave is uniquely suited to this kind of work. Located within the historic Hibernian Building, a longstanding hub for Sydney’s underground creative scene, the gallery occupies a space shaped by decades of cultural production – music, street art, and performance. Here, the physical environment reinforces the exhibition’s message: activism is inseparable from culture, and the line between public and private, protest and presentation, is deliberately porous.
Within this context, the exhibition feels neither imposed nor artificial. It is part of a continuum, a conversation with the city itself, and with the public that moves through it. The interplay of architecture, light, and installation design situates visitors within a tangible history of both creative practice and social debate.
From Activism to Cultural Movement
Over the past decade, the collective has transformed from a group of street activists into a cultural movement. Their practice blends street art, performance, visual media, and protest, challenging audiences to reconsider established narratives around cannabis and its criminalisation. Who Are We Hurting consolidates these threads into a single, immersive experience, where art and advocacy intersect, leaving viewers not only informed but implicated.
Walking through the final spaces of the exhibition, the gallery’s industrial echoes and subdued light linger in memory. It is a place that refuses neutrality; the human cost of prohibition is tangible, as is the possibility of cultural and legislative change. Leaving the gallery, one steps back into Surry Hills’ sunlit streets with a sense of reflection and quiet urgency – a reminder that the intersections of law, art, and life are neither abstract nor distant.
Exhibition Details
Opening Night: Saturday, 18 April 2026 – 6:00 PM
Exhibition Dates: 18–21 April 2026
Location: Gallery Brave, Hibernian Building, Surry Hills, Sydney
Gallery Hours: 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM daily
Featuring: Who Are We Hurting Collective – Craze, Crisp, Ethan Frank, Ladyj wüllf, LahLah Binx, Willys World
Official Link: Gallery Brave