Nocturne | Kara Burrowes & Charrette van Eekelen

Night, the veil that descends over the world for a portion of every twenty-four hours is a period of heightened emotional tension, where both unease and desire operate in the shadows.

Kara Burrowes and Charrette van Eekelen are Ōtautahi Christchurch-based artists who see the night as a psychologically charged space where memory, emotion, uncertainty and yearning provide productive grounds for artmaking. Applying variations in scale, the works take in expansive night skies, or quiet indistinct scenes that invite interpretation and projections of the imagination.

Shimmering lights are rendered with the luminosity of thread and fabric, softening edges and dissolving the recognisable toward abstraction. Imagery of Lyttelton Port and tunnel remind us that in today’s connected world, industry never sleeps; where international logistics demand that the global circulation of goods cannot cease. Light pollution and the dazzlement of fireworks that block out the light of the stars mark modern life’s misalignment with natural diurnal processes.

Main image: Charrette van Eekelen, Night Lines, 2026, velvet, New Zealand blanket, tulle, leather, paint and thread.