Anna Barriball

Night Window IV

About this artwork

This drawing is one of a series of six Night Windows. It was made using a salvaged piece of frosted bathroom glass coated with a layer of black ink. A sheet of paper was placed in contact with the glass’s three-dimensional pattern, transferring its inky textures. The paper was then bathed in water, followed by an ink and water mix, to destabilise this direct contact print. The wet paper was left to dry overnight hanging on a washing line in the artist’s studio. In this careful set of processes reminiscent of analogue photography, different shapes and distortions emerge. The watered-down black ink creates dream-like apparitions that are shaped by chance, gravity and time. The artist has likened the end result to ‘the texture of a cave wall.’ The unusual materials and subject matter (at once abstract and real life) connect to a wider interest in Anna Barriball’s practice with repurposing elements of domestic interior architecture to create a potent and ambiguous visual vocabulary.

Updated March 2023

Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? Tell us what you think.

Anna Barriball

Anna Barriball