Wilding’s small works in alabaster are off cuts of the same block she used to make her monumental Tate -owned sculpture Harbour, 1994-6 (Fig.1). Wilding painstakingly cut both the large blocks used in Harbour and the related small-scale works herself using an angle grinder.
This highly distinctive ‘streaky bacon’ alabaster was mined from the same quary as Epstein’s famous work Jacob and the Angel (Fig.2) (also coll. Tate Gallery) - Fauld Mine in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire. The fine layer of papyrus which Wilding has trapped within the marble was brought back by the artist from a trip to Egypt, and as such this work poetically combines materials from two very different geographical locations and cultures.