Lakwena Maciver: A green and pleasant land (HA-HA)

Until 19 March 2023

The Weston Gallery

Open Tuesday–Sunday and Bank Holidays, 10.00–16.00

Lakwena’s bold new work combines thought-provoking text and vibrant colour to explore freedom in public speech and public space, using YSP’s historic ha-has as inspiration.

Common in 18th-century landscaped estates, ha-has are concealed, walled ditches designed to keep livestock away from formal gardens and to preserve the landowners’ uninterrupted view. Lakwena uses these historic dividing lines as a springboard to comment on issues in today’s society, asking whether we are really as free as we think.

In the gallery, canvasses resemble protest banners, a soundscape of laughter envelops the space, and a wall of paintings endlessly proclaims ha-ha.

A gigantic face mask, suspended from the ceiling, reframes the mask as a political statement worn on the face like a repurposed banner.

Lakwena plays with the ambiguity of the word ha-ha, and provokes us to consider what is being laughed at, whether we are laughing along, and whether all is as it seems.

Current Exhibition