Maremma Warrior III was first exhibited in 2011 and is one of a series of sculptures called The Maremma Heads that marked an important juncture in the artist’s career. Earlier that year the artist has moved her studio and home from London to the Maremma region of Italy (the coastal area of western central Italy, bordering the Tyrrhenian Sea). In doing so, Young was presented with a new supply of very different stone to the ones she had previously carved in the UK, or indeed ordered from stone masons around the world. The local Maremma stone, a brecciated quartzite, consisting of large quartzite crystals embedded within an often rich terracotta coloured block of debris, is extremely hard, and therefore difficult to carve. The result was amore abstract, impasto carving style. Rather than dictating exactly how she could work – as one would with a softer stone – Young found she had to form a 50 / 50 relationship between herself and the stone, one where neither party could dictate terms. This moment was the important catalyst for Young’s sculpture moving in a new and more direct direction, which we now see in the majority of her sculptures today.

Other sculptures from this series were acquired by The Whitworth Museum in Manchester, and another exhibited at The Getty in California.