UnWrappedTenderby CuriousWorks
6 - 15 September 2024
Experiences
An immersive multi-channel film work which seeks to challenge the stigmas, stereotypes, and trappings of "representation" of Western Sydney.
| Date | Time |
| Friday 6 September | 6.30pm |
| Saturday 7 September | 6.30pm |
| Sunday 8 September | 6.30pm |
| Friday 13 September | 6.30pm |
| Saturday 14 September | 6.30pm |
| Sunday 15 September | 6.30pm |
Location
The installation will be in the Tours Digital Immersive Experience located in the Western Foyer. No registration is required.
View a map of the Western Foyer here.
Run time
Installation is open for 3 hours. You are welcome to come and go at any time.
Wheelchair accessible
Find out more about accessibility at Sydney Opera House
Age
Children aged 15 years and under must be accompanied at all times.
The Opera House is committed to the safety and wellbeing of children that visit or engage with us. Read our Child Safety Policy(link is external, opens in new tab or window).
"If tenderness doesn't come to mind when you think of Western Sydney, then you don't truly know it."
Presented in a unique immersive projection environment, Tender is a multi-channel film work from CuriousWorks. Based in Fairfield, in the heart of South West Sydney, CuriousWorks exists at the intersection of contemporary multi-arts practice, and community arts and cultural development.
Tender seeks to challenge the stigmas, stereotypes, and trappings of "representation" of Western Sydney by revealing the nuances and tender side of our communities. Stories are told through four individual but interconnected documentary films by multidisciplinary artists Mohammad Awad (3awadi), Carielyn Tunion, Diamond Tat, and Sharon Mani.
Mohammad Awad debunks the myth that queer and trans people need to leave their Western Sydney homes to find love, joy and intimacy, in Bikes, a documentary music video.
Carielyn Tunion’s video poem, i am a deepsea fisherwoman, but i do not catch fish, explores the connections of a personal diasporic family story rooted in the archipelago known as 'the Philippines' and Hong Kong.
Diamond Tat’s poetic documentary film, Marrow, is a cinematic ode to womanhood inspired by her and her mother’s immigration experience, capturing both its silent volatility and profound gentleness.
In Sharon Mani’s work, At The Heart of it, local memories and stories are shared from those who call Western Sydney home.
Program
Mohammad Awad
Bikes
Carielyn Tunion
i am a deepsea fisherwoman, but i do not catch fish
Diamond Tat
Marrow
Sharon Mani
At The Heart of it
"Each of these films welcomes viewers into an intimate exchange of personal narratives, revealing the tenderness in our communities and experiences that are often overlooked by mainstream media. We want those who recognise themselves in these films to feel comfort, joy, and validation; and for those who don’t, to see us for who we are." - CuriousWorks.
This work was produced by CuriousWorks, under the creative and technical direction of Elias Nohra. It was commissioned by Sydney Opera House and supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
UnWrapped
An ongoing series dedicated to uncovering the best independent creators. UnWrapped hands over the stage and introduces audiences to an eclectic panorama of the finest original performances by groundbreaking and unique local artists.
Meet the artists
Sharon Mani
Sharon Mani is a creative producer, an emerging filmmaker and just another girl from Western Sydney. Guided by a profound passion for storytelling, she strives to capture both the authentic and whimsical nature of life in her work. She understands the importance of people seeing themselves in films but she knows people don’t want to simply be seen - the power of stories is they present the opportunity to be understood. That opportunity, for understanding, is what sits at the heart of her creative endeavors. Her video producing work spans across corporate work with companies like ELMO and the RBA to crafting original short films and documentaries. She presently works as a content producer for the social enterprise, Tomorrow Architects and is responsible for filming short documentaries on their thought leadership programs.
Mohammad Awad
Bikes
Mohammad Awad (AKA 3AWADI) is a Writer/Director/Poet/Playwright/Musician who’s running out of ways to express himself. He has written and directed short films such as The Flower, The Messenger and Beauty Marks. Published in an anthology series Arab, Australian, Other, as well as The University of Sydney Student Anthology Diversity, he is also one of the proud editors and authors of the award-winning Mental Health collection- Admissions. A development and reading of Mohammads play Harami debuted at Sydney Theatre Company in 2023, alongside award-winning director Tasnim Hossain.
A NSW State finalist in the Australian Poetry Slam, Mohammad has also been honoured as Australia's National Youth Poetry Champion. He has also featured in the Sydney Writers Festival, Sydney Opera House, Sydney Mardi Gras and World Pride, Art Gallery of NSW, The ICC, The Iconic West Ball, Big Thick Energy, Sydney Living Museums - After Dark, Out for Australia's ‘30 under 30’, The Vanguard and Giant Dwarf Theatre. As well as being featured on ABC’s hit TV Show Space 22, The Drum and SBS.
Diamond Tat
Marrow
Diamond Tat (she/her) is a visual artist practicing storytelling through filmmaking and cinematography. Trained in Media Arts production in Sydney, she works across multiple genres e.g, narrative, documentary, music and art installation She is deeply interested in human-focused stories that explore the vast and rich human experience. Inspired by her upbringing in a mix-cultured environment, influenced by Chinese, Vietnamese and French cultures, she holds a deep interest in ideas of identities emerging, merging and shifting through time and space.
In her previous works and collaborations with a peer filmmaker - Baro Lee: Bimok (2022) and Hiruaerak (2019), Diamond explores aspects of navigating challenging and ever-shifting identities through grief and love. With her collaboration with Huy Nguyen in Minh Exhibition (2023) for Fairfield Museum, she once again has the chance to explore her family’s immigration experience like forging identities and quiet perseverance.
In informing and training her technical skills, Diamond works within the camera and video department across a few sectors in the industry: studio feature-length narrative e.g, Thor: Love and Thunder (dir. Taika Waititi) and TV-series drama e.g, ABC’s Soundtrack to Our Teenage Zombie Apocalypse.
Diamond has also been working as MediaLab Video Specialist Professional staff at the University of Technology Sydney, facilitating filmmaking workshops especially in the field of cinematography and supporting Media Arts students and staff with their research and projects.
Carielyn Tunion
i am a deepsea fisherwoman, but i do not catch fish
Carielyn Tunion (she/they) is a writer, videopoet, educator and cultural worker. She has worked in the arts & cultural sector, the community services sector, and has experience using creative strategies in grassroots community organising.
Carielyn is interested in ideas of radical softness, rage, and nostalgia from an anti-colonial, diasporic perspective. Her work has been published in kindling & sage, Mascara Literary Review, Emerging Writers Festival, SBS Filipino and KAP Magazine. She is a participating artist for Curious360 by CuriousWorks, and is currently doing a Master of Arts in Literature and Creative Writing at Western Sydney University. Carielyn’s ancestral roots are in the archipelago of the so-called Philippines, and Kowloon, Hong Kong. She currently lives, studies, works and treads respectfully on unceded Burramattagal on Dharug country.
Artist statement
About the work
Am I Australian? I stumble at the answer, I um and ahh. Am I from Western Sydney? ‘Of course’, there’s no hesitation in my voice. At The Heart of it is a documentary interviewing various people about the sweet and deep memories they have in connection with Western Sydney. But, it’s also an invitation, ‘Come out, West’ You’re not from here so there’s hesitation, a resistance - ‘But isn’t it dodgy that way? Won’t you get stabbed? I heard a guy my cousin’s sister’s father in law once worked with got mugged out there.’ And I’m telling you, the food’s good, the people are warm and the air is different. If you’ve looked out into a crowd of people at Bondi beach and never seen anyone who looks like you - get on the T2 or T3 Cumberland Line to Leppington and I promise you, you’re going to hear 8 different languages in the one carriage and one of them might be the language your mum speaks to you at home but whispers when she’s in public. Out west, there’s a lot we don't have but what we do have you can’t find anywhere else. That’s what the subjects find themselves coming back to again and again, there’s something special about Western Sydney - when you’re on these streets, you know you belong. There’s not much else to it - it's just real people, their memories and an invitation. Will you take them up on it?
About the work
How can you say love does not exist for me here, when heartbreak has been my witness?
Bikes is an intimate exploration of queer love in Western Sydney in two parts, immersing the viewer in the lives of queer people either in love or looking for love, while retelling a story of queer romance and heartbreak. Debunking the myth that queer and trans people need to leave their Western Sydney homes to find love, joy and intimacy.
This piece actively opposes a one-dimensional narrative of queer love only existing in shame and behind closed doors, everywhere you turn, we thrive before your eyes - allow our love to encompass you. The scope and format of the space is utilised to create a world of queer love that you can walk into and be entranced by, capturing mere glimpses of each couple's conversations within the soundscape, allowing the viewer to imagine what each couple's story may be and inviting them to project onto these vignettes of love.
The central metaphor of a Bike represents a nomadic love-interest who is always on the run, wreaking havoc and heartbreak on the city of Western Sydney. Despite the cycle of emotional turmoil caused by jealousy, infidelity and distance - the subject remains hooked by this love. Repeating the hook “I don’t mind, cause he’s mine”, reaffirming the mantra of denial and reassures his lover that he’s a ‘ride or die’ who will always be there for the ride.
The musical soundscape is dreamlike, capturing the innocence and wonder of young romance amidst the backdrop of a Western Sydney landscape. The piece glides through melancholic tones and upbeat tempos, with themes of heartbreak creeping in, ultimately processing the grief and denial of a relationship changing irrevocably.
Religious imagery and metaphors are incorporated to showcase the relationship between divinity and love, such as the performance of sufi darwish (twirling dervish) in the context of heartbreak. The darwish is traditionally practised as a form of prayer, dissociating from connections to the material world and becoming more receptive to divine intervention. However here it's performed in the context of heartbreak, with the subject's disorientation on display and attempting to disconnect from reality. This metaphor is extended with the reveal of other subjects also performing darwish, reinforcing the themes of infidelity and reflecting the complexity of modern queer relationships.
About the work
Marrow is a cinematic ode to womanhood, both in its silent volatility and profound gentleness. Inspired by the artist's own immigration experience, alongside her mother, the film delves deep into the emotional terrain of uprooting and letting go, tearing down and rebuilding, navigating the delicate balance between past and present, self and other.
Through a series of poetic movements, the film traces a mother and her footsteps as she navigates the liminal spaces between belonging and estrangement, longing for the familiarity of home while embracing the promise of the unknown.
Weaving together its haunting score and poetic imagery, Marrow invites the viewer to bear witness to the silent struggles and triumphs of motherhood and womanhood, to celebrate the quiet strength and profound gentleness that defines the essence of femininity.
At its core, Marrow is a meditation on the resilience of the human spirit, a testament to the enduring power of sacrifice, strength, integrity and gentleness in shaping individual, generational and collective identities.
About the work
i am a deepsea fisherwoman, but i do not catch fish (videopoem) explores the diaphanous connections of a personal diasporic family story rooted in the archipelago known as ‘the Philippines’ and Hong Kong. Across three parts or ‘cantos’, it touches on ideas of metaphysical distance, home yearning, ritual, and radical nostalgia.
Other information
Venue information
Our foyers will be open 90 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and two hours pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Refreshments will be available for purchase from our theatre bars.
All Sydney Opera House foyers are pram accessible, with lifts to the main and western foyers. The public lift to all foyers is accessible from the corridor near the escalators on the Lower Concourse and also in the Western Foyer via the corridor on the Ground Level (at the top of the escalators). Pram parking will be available outside the theatres in the Western Foyer.
Getting here
The Sydney Opera House Car Park, operated by Wilson Parking, is open and available to use. Wilson Parking offer discounted parking if you book ahead. Please see the Wilson Parking website for details.
Please check the Transport NSW website for the latest advice and information on travel. You can catch public transport (bus, train, ferry) to Circular Quay and enjoy a six min walk to the Opera House.
Covid-safe information
The health and wellbeing of everyone attending the Opera House is our top priority. We’re committed to making your experience safe, comfortable and enjoyable, with a number of measures in place including regular cleaning of high-touch areas, air conditioning systems that maximise ventilation, and hand sanitiser stations positioned in all paths of travel. We remind our audiences and visitors to please stay home if you feel unwell. If you need to discuss your ticketing or booking options, contact our Box Office team on 02 9250 7777.
The health and wellbeing of everyone attending the Opera House is our top priority. We have a number of safety measures in place including regular cleaning of high-touch areas, air conditioning systems that maximise ventilation, and hand sanitiser stations positioned in all paths of travel. While face masks are no longer required, we ask all our patrons and visitors to practise good hygiene. Please stay home if you feel unwell and read more about our flexible ticket options.
The Sydney Opera House no longer requires patrons to show that they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Frequently asked questions
Ticket purchases and collection at our Box Office is discouraged and eTicket or postal delivery methods should be used, wherever possible. However, if you are collecting your tickets from the Box Office, we recommend doing this at least 60 minutes before the event starts. If you have already received your tickets, the venue doors will be open 45 minutes pre-show for Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and 30 minutes pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Please take your seats as soon as you arrive.
If you are late, we will seat you as soon as we can and, where possible, in your allocated seat. However, to reduce movement in the venue as well as minimise disruption to the performance and other patrons, ticketholders may be seated in an allocated latecomer’s seat. Please be aware that some events have lock-out periods. In these cases, latecomers will be admitted at a suitable break in the performance. On occasions, this may not be until the interval, or at all where there is no interval.
Details of our right to refuse admission can be found in our General Terms and Conditions for Tickets and Events.
In accordance with our venue security procedures, Opera House security will be scanning and checking bags under the Monumental Stairs, prior to entering the building. Bags will be scanned by an x-ray machine, and staff will wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) when handling your belongings, such as gloves. Cloaking facilities will be open 60 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and 60 minutes pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. However it is strongly encouraged that you travel lightly to minimise contact and queuing. Any bags larger than an A4 piece of paper will need to be checked into the Cloak Room.
The authorised agency for this event is the Sydney Opera House.
Only tickets purchased by authorised agencies should be considered reliable. If you purchase tickets from a non-authorised agency such as Ticketmaster Resale, Viagogo, Ticketbis, eBay, Gumtree, Tickets Australia or any other unauthorised seller, you risk that these tickets are fake, void or have previously been cancelled. RESALE RESTRICTION APPLIES. For more details, please refer to our General Terms and Conditions for Tickets and Attendance at Events.
Please contact Box Office on 9250 7777 as soon as possible to advise if you can no longer attend.
Foyers will be open 90 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and two hours pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Refreshments will be available for purchase from our theatre bars.
The venue doors will be open 45 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and 30 minutes pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances.
Please bring a credit or debit card for any on site purchases to enable contactless payment. You’re welcome to bring your own water bottle but no other food and drinks are permitted inside our venues. Opera Bar, Opera Kitchen and Portside are also available for you to enjoy.
The health, safety and wellbeing of everyone at the Sydney Opera House is our top priority. In line with this commitment, the Opera House became a smoke-free site in January 2022. Read our Smoke-free Environment Policy.
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