Exhibition | POTLATCH PUNK WORLD TOUR 2 | Whess Harman

June 13 – August 7, 2026 

Artist Talk: Saturday, August 1, 11 am

Struts Gallery is pleased to present POTLATCH PUNK WORLD TOUR 2 a new series of ink drawings by Whess Harman depicting rambunctious, crowded, sweaty mosh pits from an imagined all-Indigenous, very queer, punk venue. These works center on the importance and impermanence of rollicking, chaotic DIY spaces as places of gathering, community-based resistance and survival.

POTLATCH PUNK WORLD TOUR 2 is a new series of ink drawings titled See You in the Pit, by 

Whess Harman, a queer, trans masc he-leaning/they artist from the Carrier Wit’at Nation. Their nation was amalgamated by the federal government as the Lake Babine Nation and is one of many Potlatching nations in so-called British Columbia. Using the clan system inherent to Potlatching governance, these drawings depict each clan, Frog, Bear, Caribou and Beaver as gathering not in traditional dance but in assigned styles of moshpits. The works fuse together Whess’ adherence to Potlatching principles of collective decision making and redistribution of wealth, as well as his lived-experience as an adult being a part of a queer urban Indigenous population in so-called Vancouver on the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples where he is based.

The drawings of the See You in the Pit series depict rambunctious, crowded, sweaty mosh pits from an imagined utopic of an all-Indigenous and very queer, punk venue. These works center on the life-saving importance and impermanence of rollicking, chaotic DIY spaces as places of gathering, community-based resistance, survival. Whess also characterizes these as places to safely feel joy and bodily autonomy in the contradiction of the pushing, running and bouncing of mosh pits.

Whess imagines these drawings as not an accurate depiction of a Potlatch or its ceremonies, but rather as the time when the governance functions of the Potlatch have been completed and the gathering devolves into friendly competitions of dance and song from the different clans. Potlatches can last anywhere from an evening to several days, depending on the occasion and capacity of the hosting clans, and ebb and swell as different parts of the community come in and out of the gathering space.

POTLATCH PUNK WORKD TOUR 2 is on from June 13 – August 7, 2026.

Artist Talk will take place Saturday, August 1, 11 am.

IMAGE: FrogClanMoshPit. Photo courtesy Dennis Ha.

About the artist

Whess Harman is a member of the Carrier Wit’at Nation, a nation amalgamated by the federal

government under the Lake Babine Nation and currently resides on the traditional territories of the

Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. He doesn’t like cops and believes in land sovereignty

for Indigenous peoples all across the globe, including Palestine. In his arts practice he works primarily in

drawing, text and textiles. As an independent curator and occasional editor and contributor to a variety of

small publication projects, he prioritizes emerging queer and BIPOC cultural workers and artists.

Working through many mediums, Whess is thinking through ideas of resistance from the foundation of

his identity as a queer, trans member of Carrier Wit’at nation living away from his territories. He considers

his Indigeneity to be both a cultural and spiritual reality, as well as a political identity. He’s most interested

in finding paths to liberated futures alongside the many who share rage and despair in the face of the

seemingly unrelenting shit-storm of empire.