Flightless Bird
Above: Celline Mercado is photographed with Flightless Bird, 2025, installation view, Trocadero Projects, Melbourne. Tufted rug, 350 x 120 cm. Produced in Melbourne and Manila in collaboration with PROFANITY PH.
After completing my MFA, I suffered a serious arm injury while on holiday at Phillip Island, leading to surgery and months of recovery that halted my art practice. Stuck in a limbo—unable to work, travel, or create—I was forced to stay put, slow down, be grounded.
Flightless Bird (2025) contemplates this period of stillness, healing, and emotional reckoning. It is about rest, learning to rely on others, and reorienting after upheaval. My first foray into tapestry, it is a collaboration with Philippine-based rug artist Profanity, symbolising shared effort and support.
I remember sitting on the cold beach with my friends, waiting for the fairy penguins to emerge from the sea. Maybe we’re not so unalike. As we continue to wander in search of direction and meaning, instinctively, in the end, we can find our way home.
*
Last July, I fractured my left humerus.
We were at an Airbnb on Philip Island. We had just cracked open some beers and were goofing around when I suggested arm wrestling to a friend. I won the first round, he won the second.
We were in the living room. Everybody else was watching. We were going for a (non-dominant hand) tiebreaker.
He was winning. My left arm was already at an awkward angle, but I was being stubborn. I started to slowly push back. It seemed like I could still turn the tide. I went up, up, up… then SNAP!
I lost sensation in my forearm—like it got unplugged or something. It went limp. I grabbed it with my right hand, calmly declared, “Oh my god, you broke my arm,” and collapsed on the carpet.
It was around midnight when I was rushed to the ER. I got a scan: my bone had snapped in half. My arm was plastered, and I was put on a lot of pain killers. I spent the night sleepless, successfully extending my Duolingo streak.
In the morning, a no-nonsense Ukrainian doctor named Igor took one glance at me and said, “Tsk. Who made your cast? It’s all wrong. We have to do it again to realign your bone.”
I was put under nitrous oxide—laughing gas. Before going under, they told me I’d either cry and vomit or, as the name suggested, laugh. Apparently, I couldn’t stop giggling.
When they woke me up, the first thing I said was, “I’m going to make art about this.”
And I did.
This is Flightless Bird.
Flightless Bird is currently on view at Trocadero Projects as part of Celline's solo The heart of the matter. The exhibition runs until 11 May 2025. The artwork is available for purchase. Please direct all enquiries to the artist.
Above and previous: Detail and installation view of Flightless Bird, 2025, Trocadero Projects, Melbourne. All images courtesy of the artist.