Making art from the objects grandma left behind

Danielle Brustman was contemplating the role of music, legacy and memory within her family when inspiration struck.

The Melbourne-based designer wanted to find a way to pay tribute to her grandmothers, Marta and Dora, and their journeys to building better lives in Australia.

The result is the deeply personal, I could have danced all night, an audio-visual exhibition that explores the power of objects to hold stories, which premiered at the Jewish Museum of Australia last weekend.

“I wanted to honour both women. The intention was to design something that contains their memory, or a location in which I can place their memory,” Brustman told The Jewish Independent.

A pair of intricately designed boxes sit at the centre of the exhibition – one a music box, the other a jewellery box – which capture the fabric and memories of Brustman’s matriarchs. The jewellery box is made from repurposed timber that came from Dora’s vanity dresser, while the music box is informed by the shape of a 1960s handbag that Marta used to shop with.

The boxes are imbued with each grandmother’s history, personality and cherished belongings. For example, the tortoise shell base of the music box is a nod to Marta’s signature hair comb, and is embossed with the titles of songs she used to sing to Brustman, while the colours are inspired by her clothing and favourite lipstick.

Those songs form part of a specially curated soundtrack representative of both women, which plays in the exhibit alongside a slideshow of family photos.

Brustman says the process of creating the exhibition was “poignant” as it is the first time her work overtly showcases her connection to her Jewish heritage.

“This has been a really interesting process for me to go through, to look at how I've developed as a creative person in Australia through my design work, and also how my family and my cultural background has influenced me,” said Brustman, who has been named amongst Australia’s top 50 designers by Vogue Living.

“It’s a very special privilege to be able to delve into that so deeply through this process.”

Designing the work has also allowed Brustman to better understand her grandmothers’ lives, which took very distinct trajectories.

Where Austro-Hungarian Marta moved to Australia as a young child and grew up on top of a pub in Sydney’s Surrey Hills, Polish-born Dora spent five years in a Siberian Gulag. Where Marta was an only child, Dora had 11 siblings – her brother and mother perished in a concentration camp. Where Marta was an atheist and went to secretarial school, Dora was religious and working in a factory by age 13.

“They had very different experiences but I’m very much a product of those experiences and I’ve been very influenced by them,” Brustman said.

“There's so many stories of migrants and refugees. This is just one brief moment in the storytelling of one family who ended up in Australia.”

After beginning her career as a theatre set designer, Brustman’s diverse practice now spans residential interiors and commercial design for the hospitality, education and retail sectors, along with furniture and lighting design.

Her work has shown in landmark exhibitions and prizes including the Rigg Design Prize, NGV Triennial, Melbourne Now, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Melbourne Design Week and Salone Del Mobile in Milan.

While there are no plans as yet for I could have danced all night to move elsewhere following its showing at the Jewish Museum of Australia until March next year, Brustman says it would be “incredible if that were to happen”.

“Regardless of who you are or your background or ethnicity, everyone has the capacity to understand this exhibition in terms of their own families,” she concluded.

“So many of us who are fortunate enough to have had our grandmothers in our lives can relate to that beautiful love and connection. It is universal.”

I could have danced all night by Danielle Brustman, the Eva and Marc Besen Contemporary Artist Commission for 2024, is exhibiting now at the Jewish Museum of Australia until March 2025. Learn more and book tickets online.