Tender
Multimedia anthology, documentary
2023 – 2026
Bikes
Mohammad Awad
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.
Photo credits: Supplied & Miranda Aguilar
Published in an anthology series ‘Arab, Australian, Other’ as well as The University of Sydney Anthology ‘Diversity’, he is also one of the proud editors of the mental health anthology collection- Admissions. He has featured in every iconic West Ball, as well as in the Sydney Writers Festival, Sydney Mardi Gras, Sydney Living Museums – After Dark, The ICC, Sydney Festival, Weave Youths’ Mad Pride Concert, Word in Hand, Red Room Poetry, The Vanguard and Giant Dwarf Theatre. They have also been featured on ABC’s hit TV Show ‘Space 22’, ABC’s ‘The Drum’ and SBS television, ABC Radio, SBS Radio, Eastside Radio, 2SER and FBI Radio.
i am a deepsea fisherwoman, but i do not catch fish
Carielyn Tunion
A personal diasporic family story.
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, homeyearning, ritual, and radical nostalgia.
Photo Credits: Supplied & Elias Nohra
Marrow
Diamond Tat
A cinematic ode to womanhood, both in its silent volatility and profound gentleness.
Inspired by Diamond’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.
Photo Credits: Supplied & Ammar Gulambar Jamal
At The Heart Of It
Sharon Mani
"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?
Photo Credit: Supplied
Opening night at the Sydney Opera House
The opening night of Tender was the epitome of how art connects us in myriad ways. There’s a special magic in how it brings us together – sparking awe, conversations, tears, and laughter. We are all so proud of the infinite amount of care and hard work that everyone involved poured into Tender. Re-live all the magic through our highlights video, which was filmed and edited by Juan Guillermo Robayo Gómez.
In the media
03/09/25: Mohammad Awad’s Bikes featured in Shortwave x Red Room Poetry: Short Films at the Sydney Opera House
02/12/24: All artists interviewed by Liminal Magazine
04/09/24: Diamond Tat & Reggie Azwar interview at Radio Skid Row’s as part of their Anything Goes program
07/09/24: All artists interviewed at FBi Radio as part of their Snacc Pacc program
08/09/24: Mohammad Awad (3awadi) – ABC Digital spotlight: New show Tender puts queer storytellers from Western Sydney centre stage at opera house
CREDITS
Artists: Mohammad Awad (3awadi), Carielyn Tunion, Sharon Mani, Diamond Tat
Creative and Technical Director: Elias Nohra
Creative Producers: Samantha Barahona, Miranda Aguilar
Photographer (Blog Header): Damon Amb
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.
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Our office is located on Darug land at Fairfield City HQ. We would like to acknowledge the Cabrogal Clan of the Darug Nation, the traditional custodians of the land. Our work takes us across Darug, Dharawal and Eora lands. Sovereignty was never ceded.