THE new memorial to the founder of the UAE unveiled in Dubai last week was created in North Yorkshire by creative manufacturer Stage One.

The Tockwith-based business constructed the monumental artwork that formed the permanent memorial to the UAE’s founding father Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

Stage One was appointed to fabricate the centrepiece of the memorial, which stands at 30m tall and 8,000m3 and takes the form of a dynamic three-dimensional portrait of the late Sheikh Zayed that looks different from a range of perspectives.

The 3D portrait, which is the largest ever piece of artwork to have been made by Stage One, was formed out of a total of 1,327 platonic solids suspended on 1,110 vertically suspended steel wire cables.

Mark Johnson, chief executive of Stage One, said: “Delivering this project was a landmark achievement for Stage One.

“It brought together the best of our engineering capabilities, in particular design development and specialist manufacture.

“This is the largest artwork we’ve ever made and we’re very proud of what we’ve created.”

This portrait, entitled The Constellation, was designed by Ralph Helmick, a Massachusetts based artist renowned for his large scale suspended sculptures. His trademark is three-dimensional pointillism, whereby hundreds of small sculptures coalesce into a large composite form, often to create a portrait.

For Stage One the project took just 14 months from design concept to reveal. Each solid took ten days to produce and required a level of care that meant once welded, they were never handled directly, protecting the exacting surface finish.

The Constellation is located alongside the Corniche in Abu Dhabi, and was revealed during a televised inauguration last week and will be open to the public later this year.

The project is the latest in a high profile portfolio of work by Stage One, which includes architectural pavilions, event environments, television sets and stage engineering.

The firm is best known for manufacturing Wolfgang Buttress’s Hive, and Thomas Heatherwick’s iconic 2012 Olympic Cauldron.

Most recently it created the part of the set for the BRITS awards and the current series of ITV’s Dancing on Ice.

This year also saw the company continue its 14-year association with the Olympic Games after providing its expertise for the opening ceremony of the Pyeong Chang Games, in South Korea.