Lakwena Maciver

This work, from Lakwena Maciver’s series of HA-HA paintings, created for her exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, transforms the historic ha-ha ditch into a bold, graphic protest. Inspired by the concealed 18th-century barriers woven through the park’s landscape, the work reflects on how spaces designed to appear open were in fact instruments of exclusion, built during the era of the Enclosure Acts that privatized common land and erased shared rights. Rooted in Lakwena’s recurring exploration of a longing for Paradise, the painting begins with the park imagined as an Eden-like setting. Yet this vision is unsettled by the sinister history of the ha-has, which become metaphors for contemporary divisions and the tightening control of public space and speech. Rendered in vivid colour and emblazoned with commanding text, the work echoes the visual language of protest banners. Its cry of “HA-HA” hovers between laughter and warning, at once playful and unsettling, inviting viewers not to obey, but to question: who is laughing, and at whose expense?

43.31 × 43.31 inches (unframed)
110 × 110 cm (unframed)

Courtesy of the Artist.