Ha Ha Happy

A new public art work for Happy Mount Park.

As part of the Morecambe Bay Coastal Commissioning Programme, Deco Publique and theCOLAB are proud to present HA HA HAPP’ an expansive and immersive new permanent 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.