«“THE STONE is asking me to give it the right face: it is thoughtful, quiet,” says British stone sculptor Emily Young. She carves boldly, clad in a thick jacket, leather hat, sturdy boots, face mask and ear plugs, but no gloves because “you need to feel what’s happening with the stone through the tool.” She draws a line here and there where an eye or a mouth might be, then starts cutting the stone with an angle grinder – a power tool that can cut through marble – or with a chisel and a big hammer.

“I cut until the stone lets me know what to do. As I carved behind his nose where his left eye would appear, there was a large white stripe, which went down from the corner of his eye to the bottom of the stone. It was a geological accident, but it looked like a tear. I called the piece the Weeping Guardian.”

Young, who has been called «Britain’s greatest living stone sculptor«, has work exhibited and collected around the world, but it is the first time that one of her creations reposes at the bottom of the sea.

Young’s 18-tonne Weeping Guardian and two other colossal faces (The Gentle Guardian and the Young Guardian), which she carved in Carrara marble with the help of two associates over five days, were lowered down on the sea bed off the coast of Tuscany at Talamone, a town between Florence and Rome, in 2015. There, her massive stone guardians are protecting marine life against gangs trawling illegally at night – and will hopefully keep their quiet watch for thousands of years.»