Portraits of UAE leaders created with coins from 88 countries

To celebrate the 'Year of 50th', the local authority of Abu Dhabi created portraits of the UAE leaders using coins. The Integrated Transport Centre (ITC) of the Department of Municipalities and Transport made the work from coins from 88 countries, representing the social and cultural harmony between the UAE and other nations.

The ITC said the initiative is following in the lines of the visionary leader, the UAE’s Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who once said: “We preserve the past, maintain the present and build the future.”

The initiative comes in celebration of the ‘Year of the 50th’ and was created by Arab artist Osama Sbeata, who holds the Guinness World Record for the largest sand painting. The artwork is kept in the main lobby of the ITC building in Al Maqta.

The idea for artwork is derived from pre-Hafilat smart cards when residents, as well as tourists from other countries, used coins to pay for the bus fares. “In 2013, the ICT discontinued the use of all cash payments and switched to digital payment system using Hafilat smart cards as the service payment method,” said Ateeq Mohammed Al Mazroui, operations division director, public transport sector.

The artwork expresses love and gratitude to the UAE and its leaders who built the country on the foundations of tolerance and made it a role model. An artwork also shows the development in Abu Dhabi in all sectors, especially in the transport sector.

The artwork expresses love and gratitude to the UAE and its leaders who built the country on the foundations of tolerance and made it a role model.

Brendan Murphy has installed a 22 foot, 3,000-pound sculpture named "The Boonji Spaceman" on a dock in the middle of the ocean at the Hodges Bay Resort in Antigua. The sculpture strikes a Michael Jackson-inspired dance pose and is emblazoned with words and mathematical equations.

Often compared to artist Jeff Koons, Murphy's "Boonji Spaceman" series is his most recognized body of work, which he first created out of bronze in 2015. Yet that one stands only 18 inches high.

"I've always had this weird connection to these people who are willing to get on a space ship and go to the unknown,' Murphy said. "And I think a lot of the creative process is (similar). If you're not comfortable with the unknown then you're in the wrong business."

When Christopher Harding, the co-owner of the Hodges Bay Resort, commissioned Murphy to create another version of his spaceman, Murphy said he knew it had to be big, literally. "We wanted to create something that you could see from space down on the island," he said. Murphy said they hired a company to take photos of the sculpture from space that they plan to release soon.

The sculpture is made up of steel and carbon fiber. Murphy took 8 months to create the sculpture and there were production challenges because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

"And I think a lot of the creative process is (similar). If you're not comfortable with the unknown then you're in the wrong business."