Whess Harman

One Saturday each month, CAG invites a guest host to lead walkthroughs of our current exhibitions, offering their insights and response to the works on view. In July, we welcome Whess Harman to speak on the work of Gabrielle L'Hirondelle Hill. 

### Accessibility
ASL interpretation is available on request. Requests can be accommodated up to 5 days in advance. Please contact [learning@cagvancouver.org](mailto:learning@cagvancouver.org) to book or for more information.

### RSVP
No advance registration required.

### Biography
Whess Harman is a member of the Carrier Wit’at Nation, a nation amalgamated by the federal government under the Lake Babine Nation. He doesn’t like cops and believes in land sovereignty for Indigenous peoples all across the globe. In his arts practice he works primarily in drawing, text and textiles. As the curator at grunt gallery and occasional editor for a mish-mash of publications, he prioritizes emerging queer and BIPOC cultural workers and artists. Whess looks to the arts as one of many tools in fighting oppressive forces and can be a little fucking rude about it, when the occasion calls.

A black and white photograph of Whess Harman. They sit by the water and smiling. 

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Whess Harman on Gabrielle L'Hirondelle Hill

Saturday Session

We are pleased to announce our latest installment of CAG Reads, a book club where artists invite us to read alongside them. Each month an artist proposes a text for our collective reading pleasure, culminating in a virtual hangout where the artist leads a wide-ranging discussion grounded in their chosen reading material. 

This month, CAG Reads will be hosted by artist Whess Harman. Harman’s multidisciplinary practice includes beading, illustration, text, poetry, and curation. They use their practice as a way of interpreting questions of identity and relation and prioritize internal community dialogue over colonial frameworks. Current projects include the Potlatch Punk series, various text-based works, zines, and comics. Harman currently lives and works on the territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations as the curator at grunt gallery. 

Whess has selected two comics for our spring CAG Reads. *On A Sunbeam* (2018) by Tillie Walden, an epic queer love story and sci-fi graphic novel that echoes classic comic genres while rendering them in Walden’s own unique visual language. *Mami* (2018) by Diigii Daguna is a sweet and savoury detective story told in vivid, time-honored manga style with a touch of romance and lots of food.

### Getting the texts

*On A Sunbeam* can be read [here](https://www.onasunbeam.com/) and is available at the [Vancouver Public Library](https://www.vpl.ca/). *Mami* can be ordered as a digital copy [here](https://gumroad.com/peow?sort=page_layout). Physical copies can be ordered from [Lucky’s Books and Comics](https://luckys.ca/), [Pulp Fiction](http://pulpfictionbooksvancouver.com/), or [Massy Books](https://www.massybooks.com/); please allow 1-3 weeks for shipping.



Whess Harman

Talks & Events