‘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
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…”