artist statement
I am a multidisciplinary artist using installation, sound, and live performance to explore gender and embodiment in the information age. I design large UPVC banners to recontextualise the language and imagery of the web into public space, exposing the fissures between intimacy and surveillance in online communication. Performing live as my alter ego Nukleopatra, a combination of e-girl influencer and doomsday prepper, I explore the feminine as a performance, collapsing male-female and human-machine binaries. I interrogate objectification of the body, commodification of intimacy, and tension between empowerment and exploitation. My work is informed by research into the human and environmental costs of tech capitalism, considering gendered labour throughout history and the contemporary feminised ‘prosumer’ of digital culture. My current project, ‘The Girling Room,’ investigates ‘girl’ as a performance enacted in virtual spaces, and as a set of characteristics imposed onto artificial beings. The outcome of this project will be displayed in my upcoming solo exhibition at the Minories Gallery in late 2026.biography
Multimedia artist Tilly Hawkins (aka Nukleopatra) has exhibited and performed at art fairs around Europe with arts collective Blackwater Polytechnic. Notable recent exhibitions include Voyager 2000: Worldbeing and Wonder at Firstsite and her solo exhibtion Pure Ecstasy Upon Receiving Oblivion at Patch. Tilly has recently completed an artist residency at the Minories, and an experimental performance residency at Computala Festival. Tilly is currently developing work for her upcoming solo exhibition at the Minories, scheduled for late 2026. This research and development is supported by funding from a-n The Artists Information Co and Firstsite’s Collectors Group.Tilly is part of the 2025-26 cohort of Conditions Studio’s alternative MFA programme. She has an MA in Curating from the University of Essex, received the Art History Dissertation Prize for her work on the exhibition Lavender Menace at Art Exchange, and took part in the prestigious École du Louvre Summer School. Tilly was the SPACE Colchester Studio Bursary awardee for 2021-22, providing her with a subsidised studio for six months, and was a mentee in the Mercury Theatre’s talent development programme for 2024-25. Tilly has a background in stage acting with the Mercury Theatre Young Company.