Danielle Brustman at the NGV

‘Coloured in 2020’

Through her distinctive use of colour, Melbourne-based designer Danielle Brustman conceives interiors and furniture that create a new sensibility within a space.

Brustman expanded on this colour-centric view and taken it to another level in the site-specific installation, ‘Coloured in 2020’ in the National Gallery of Victoria. This installation formed the exhibition design component for ‘Spectrum: An Exploration of Colour’, which featured in the NGV Triennial 2020.

* top image credit : Jonathon Griggs

NGV Triennial 2020

the installation ….’Coloured in 2020′

A visually stunning juxtaposition of colour bands, Danielle created new context and meaning for the Gallery’s balconies and corridor spaces while referencing the colours of the beautiful coloured glass ceiling by Leonard French in the Great Hall. Danielle also curated NGV Collection pieces along with her own furniture and lighting design work.

Her use of tretford carpet as a central colour medium has been a transformative experience to witness and we were interested to understand the driving concepts behind her work for this exhibition.

Further to the exhibition space, Danielle also ran Children’s Workshops during the Triennial to encourage the use of colour and play.

#photography by Sean Fennessy

Click here to see NGV project

Interview with Amanda Dunsmore – Senior Curator, NGV…

Some excerpts:

“Colour has always been an integral component of my work, both as a set designer and as an interior designer. I appreciate the way a certain hue can elevate a space and have an impact on one’s psychological and emotional experience. Colour can evoke a vast range of human responses and feelings and therefore it can be a very powerful tool for a designer. I have always been fascinated by the relationship between colours and particularly the idea that certain colours when paired with one another can emit a frequency that is particular and unique….

I am interested in traditional colour theory and harmonics but especially interested in experimenting with discordant colour combinations. It is sometimes in the pairing of an unlikely colour combination that I discover a colour tension or effect that is interesting and unique….” Danielle Brustman

“For the installation ‘Coloured in 2020’ at the NGV Triennial, Danielle draws on a colour theory developed by Le Corbusier in the 1930s, particularly the tool he invented known as the colour keyboards. Le Corbusier was interested in how colour affects and influences mood and spatial effects.

“His colour keyboards emerged as a by-product of his experience as both a painter and architect and are an application of colour grouping, shade and tone–a colour palette arranged like a keyboard. A cardboard cut-out slides along the keyboards to create colour harmonies and groupings.

This tool was developed by Le Corbusier for Salubra, a Swiss wallpaper company, as an aid to help clients select a palette for wallpaper, furnishings, carpet and other interior finishes…”

A nod to Le Corbusier

I have responded to the works assembled for ‘Spectrum: An Exploration of Colour’ with treatments for the display cases, the corridor floor and the balconies that borrow from Le Corbusier’s colour spectrum. Spectrum explores the historical exegesis of colour, its use, meaning and properties in historical and contemporary works.

My intervention is sympathetic to the curatorial objective and delivers a visual repartee between the works in the exhibition, the corridor spaces, the balconies and my own design work…” Danielle Brustman

# photography by Sean Hennessy

tretford’s role…

“In Coloured in 2020, coloured carpet wraps the entire floor of the corridor and balconies in a keyboard pattern that connects the colour narrative within the display cases to the architectural environment of the exhibition, in particular making reference to Leonard French’s multicoloured cut-glass ceiling in the Great Hall.

Using the coloured carpet across the floor and balcony walls creates a physical and visual link between the corridor and balcony spaces and the entire installation.

The use of carpet speaks to the domestic and architectural nature of Le Corbusier’s colour keyboards in their primary iteration. I used the tretford carpet range for its extensive colour range and robust natural fibres….” Danielle Brustman

#photography by Sean Hennessy

Click here to see Tretford’s colour palette