The Earth Angel Project consists of placing twelve large (at least three tonnes in weight) partially carved stone heads around the world.Three are already sited, with four more in planning stage. The heads have the demeanour of wildness, gravity and beneficence. They will stand both as testaments to our nobler aspirations and as exemplars of the geological history of our earth.

Each one can be seen as acting as a kind of prism between the past and the future. They will be presented with accompanying information spelling out their geological history, age etc.

Each piece of stone is a complete piece of nature in its own right, found in a quarry, with no sawn sides. The raw surface skin is left so that the natural history of each piece of stone can be seen.

Our aims are:

1. To present the story of stone as a literal embodiment of the planets past, with an emphasis on the enormous time scales involved, leading back to the creation of the planet;

2. To allow the stones to tell their own stories, by giving the stones a face, a voice.

3. To invite people to imagine a time in the distant future where these heads might still survive, and be seen;

4. To provide work and training for local stone masons around the construction of these sites.

This project is in no way religious in intent or practice.

We already have three installed in Paris and London, with plans under way for China, the USA, Australia, India, Brazil and Italy.

I call these stone carvings Earth Angels, consciously using the Sanskrit origin of the word angel, (i.e. Anjiras, meaning messenger), as the best word to describe their function. They are “art”, sculptures, but they also carry a rich, particular and literal story just as pieces of stone, of their origins and the creation of our planet and universe. I see the stones as kinds of ancestors, speaking to us from aeons ago. Messengers from the past.

Because of the durability of the material, it is possible to imagine the heads lasting for many more years, the quartzite pieces for instance having a life span, potentially, of millions of years. Some of these pieces could plausibly survive into the future and be seen millions of years from now by future inhabitants of the planet or the galaxy. Messengers from us.

I always leave some of the original quarry skin of the stone showing, so that it’s formation in nature can be seen and touched, experienced.

Some sitings are public commissions, while others will be paid for by private benefactors.

Emily Young.