Concrete Playground

Alongside her talents as a singer/songwriter, a visual artist, a designer, a costumier and an entrepreneur, Robyn Wilson has a talent for bringing people together, getting them enthusiastic and involved, and getting things done. A couple of days before the "creative collision" she's directing for Creative Sydney, A Foreign Light Becomes Freedom in Flight, where she performs as Flutter Lyon, she's "really excited, lots on, in my apartment, my studio, working quietly". That statement explains quite a bit about Robyn: she's so genuinely into what she's doing that she finds having heaps on at work pretty unmitigatedly exciting; her work and life are closely intermingled and there's a calm head alongside all the passion.

That pragmatic organising quality and the conceptual impetus come together in a one-woman production house that's worked across as much of the arts as you could easily think of and has brought together a group of artists from across different media, all of whom are dedicated to innovative practice both in their own work and in interdisciplinary collaboration.

"It's very much the international zeitgeist," she says of working across 'scenes' and experimenting in performance as well as preparation. She sees the breakdown of the lines between 'professional', 'artist' and 'professional artist' as an important part of creative progress, characterising it with the term 'collision' to invoke the energies and unpredictable forces that will shake up how and what art is made. Bringing together groups that have different talents and focuses in their work also means different ways of communicating promotionally and artistically, and takes performers and publics into "crossovers, where they're not siloed".

Robyn sees the growing understanding of collaborations in its incorporation into giant international acts like Radiohead, U.N.K.L.E and Beck, but maintains that it's something that can work just as effectively at a smaller level, having perhaps a little more freedom. “Husein [Alicajic, a co-contributor to A Foreign Light] does TV commercials, right? As well as his own work, too. He's done commercials for say the Sydney Dance Company, these gorgeous things, but he'll be on a brief, he'll have like half an hour to shoot something." A little note of gloating slips into her voice as she explains “Well, [the A Foreign Light crew] got a whole day! Studios 301, they very kindly donated their facilities for us to go and be in and rehearse and just jam."

Reaching muso-speak from a sentence that starts in a quite business-like register is another one of Robyn's collisions. Very much the practitioner, her years in galleries and running View of Courage studios have given her register a professionally courteous note that she slips into when being super-efficient. There's a peppering of exclamations when she explains things, and the lists she rattles off are Rabelaisian (but in the epically cumulative rather than the gross way). A consummate "yes, and ..." communicator, you feel smart when you talk to Robyn, like she's doing something really cool and you understand it really well so you might just be really cool as well.

"It's going to be beautiful," is her refrain as we talk about what's going to happen at her forthcoming show, and "amazing" the adjective of choice for her co-performers. This may sound airy written down, but comes from her as a considered opinion in a decisive voice, and looking at the group involved predisposes me in favour of trusting her judgement on this. Robyn as Flutter Lyon will be singing and looking amazing in a recustomisation of a vintage wedding dress she's used previously for another of her collisions. A Foreign Light also showcases the art-rock of Parades and post-classical from the NOISE, musically, a 45-minute original film by commercial and art director Husein Alicajic, live mixing and real-time interactive audio effects by new media artist Harriet Birks and wardrobe by St Augustine Academy. Phew. The outfits are done and the film is made, but the performance is otherwise an improvisation, with the group experimenting with perception and knowledge, boundaries and familiarity.

A Foreign Light Becomes Freedom In Flight shows 8:30 to 10pm at the MCA on Friday, June 11, as part of Creative Sydney, which we like a lot. Places are free but definitely book one. There will be gold perspex and white tunnels of light.