Launch: Wednesday 9 April 6–8PM

In Banana Heart Summer (2005), Filipino-Australian author Merlinda Bobis weaves a story around a banana myth:

'Close to midnight, when the heart bows from its stem, wait for the first dew. It will drop like a gem. Catch it with your tongue. When you eat the heart of the matter, you’ll never go hungry.'

In The heart of the matter, Celline Mercado is trying to satiate her own gnawing hunger – a relentless drive to find acceptance and a sense of self amidst displacement. For her first solo presentation since leaving the Philippines in 2022, Mercado returns to needlework and introduces tapestry to explore loss and longing within the Filipino diasporic experience. Through a suite of works that oscillate between the mundane and the fantastical, she seeks to understand why we leave and what we hope to find.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Celline Mercado (b. 1997, Philippines) is a visual artist always caught in between, searching for a soft place to land. As a Filipino woman of Japanese descent, she is thematically interested in migration, labour and colonial histories. Grounded in materiality, repetition and rigour, her work spans print, soft sculpture and installation.

She holds a Master of Fine Art from RMIT University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Information Design and Art Management from Ateneo de Manila University. Mercado has exhibited across Asia, the United States, and Australia, with works held in private collections in the Philippines and Australia.

Image credit: Celline Mercado, Buti pa ang saging may puso, e ikaw wala (A banana has a heart, but you don’t), 2025, digital print on postcard, 15 x 15 cm