An activist duo renowned for their high-profile 4/20 stunts are taking a new approach to their campaigning which they insist will deliver a more powerful message to politicians, policymakers, and the public.
Will Stolk and Alex Zammitt have carried out numerous pro-cannabis stunts over the past decade to draw attention to the folly of prohibition, from projecting messages onto Sydney Opera House to driving tanks across the city’s harbour bridge.
But for this year’s 4/20, the pair are taking a distinctly more considered approach – by staging an art show at a Sydney gallery.
The exhibition, under Stolk and Zammit’s ‘who are we hurting’ movement, will feature a collection of installation-led art and “Banksy-style stuff” designed to “reframe cannabis prohibition through lived experience rather than policy abstraction”.
At its centre will be a detention-style installation, complete with a prisoner behind bars, that organisers said will “place audiences inside the consequences of enforcement” and spell out the reality faced by individuals charged and penalised for cannabis-related offences.
The broader exhibition, which opens at Sydney’s Gallery Brave on April 18, will explore criminalisation and policing and illustrate what the duo described as the “disconnect between shifting public sentiment and current legal frameworks”.
Explaining the new approach, Stolk told Cannabiz: “For the past decade, we’ve used large-scale stunts to force the conversation into the public eye. This time, we wanted to slow it down and make people sit inside it. An art show lets us hold that tension longer. It’s not just something you see in passing, it’s something you experience.
“Instead of another headline stunt, we’re building something that documents the reality we’ve been pointing at for years.”
Zammitt said the stunts received attention, but the exhibition will deliver “impact”.
“We’re taking everything we’ve learned from being out on the street and putting it into a space where people can’t look away. It’s more controlled, but it hits harder,” he said.
“We didn’t want to repeat ourselves this year. A 4/20 show made more sense. It brings people together, creates dialogue, and shows the full scope of what we’ve been building.”
They added the exhibition will “bring together 10 years of cultural interventions that have consistently challenged Australia’s cannabis laws”.
“The work shifts the conversation away from debate and toward lived experience, asking audiences to consider not just the legality of cannabis but the human cost of enforcing its prohibition,” they said.
While continuing to push for reform, and recognising that adult use remains illegal, Zammitt said it was important to recognise that progress has been made.
“When we started this a decade ago, I couldn’t have predicted how far cannabis would come,” he said. “Today, we have a legal [medical] market, states where you’re permitted to drive if you’re not impaired, and others where you can grow your own at home.
“While there’s still more work to be done, it’s important to take a moment to acknowledge and celebrate how far we’ve come.”
The exhibition runs from 6pm on April 18 to 6pm on April 21 at Gallery Brave in Surry Hills.