Deco Publique and theCOLAB present HA HA HAPPY Lakwena

As part of the Morecambe Bay Coastal Commissioning Programme, Deco Publique and theCOLAB are proud to present ‘HA HA HAPPY’ an expansive and immersive new public art work by renowned artist Lakwena Maciver for the basketball courts at Happy Mount Park in Morecambe.

Lakwena’s work covers a vast 1,000 sqm, including a floorscape of rows and rows of technicolour ‘ha ha’s, the onomatopoeic representation of laughter. The repurposed and reused technicolour interlocking basketball floor tiles meet the words ‘HAPPY’ rising up on boards around the perimeter. Echoing Maya Angelou’s “Just as hope rings through laughter…’, the work explores the importance of laughter in establishing social bonds, its contagious quality leading to happiness - a fundamental sign of openness, safety and humanity.

HA HA HAPPY coalesces Lakwena’s work relating to basketball courts, the rural landscape and large-scale urban interventions. The artist is internationally renowned for her work in public spaces across the world, from installations at the Artist’s Garden, Tate Britain, Somerset House, to a juvenile detention centre in Arkansas, a monastery in Vienna and the Bowery Wall in New York City. Opened in 1927 as a public park, Happy Mount Park was created during Morecambe’s growth as a popular seaside resort, its character drawing on the tradition of late Victorian and Edwardian municipal parks. The park takes its name from the area at the eastern end of Morecambe’s promenade known as Happy Mount, a naturally elevated point that offered sweeping views across the vast sands of Morecambe Bay towards the Lakeland fells. These uplifting vistas continue to delight visitors today, connecting generations with the beauty of the renowned Bay.

Today, Happy Mount Park is a place where memories are made by thousands of local families, day-trippers and holidaymakers. Visitors come to explore everything the park has to offer, from the much-loved miniature train to a range of spaces designed for intergenerational play and enjoyment. Entranced by the innate joyfulness of both name and place, Lakwena was inspired to encapsulate the happiness of our experiences past and present in civic parks. Her intervention HA HA HAPPY is a bold technicolour public art work that signals a creative leap forward for this treasured open-air space. Her intensely coloured, geometric forms for the basketball court at Happy Mount Park create an expansive and immersive floorscape over which the public is invited to come together, play and laugh. Absorbing the energising palette of the floorscapes and the positive messaging of laughter across the floor, visitors will play basketball, netball and football on the fully functioning courts. Leaping from HA to HA, visitors are embraced by the word HAPPY punctuated by upward surging rays towards the goals. HA HA HAPPY is a utopian, joyful intervention into public space with the serious intent of contemplating connection, commonality and the liberating power of laughter. COMMUNITY OPENING - 18 April 2026 | 12 - 4 pm

Join Lakwena to celebrate the opening of HA HA HAPPY with the Morecambe community. The day includes free artist-led workshops, creative basketball sessions, music and light refreshments. From 12pm - 4pm. Families and all ages are welcome. Free to attend. Register by email - hello@decopublique.co.uk or turn up on the day.