artist statement
I am a multidisciplinary artist based in Suffolk. I use installation, sound, and live performance to explore gender and embodiment in the information age. My multimedia work is shaped by processes of sampling, appropriation, and remix. I create digital designs for large UPVC banners and textiles to recontextualise the language and imagery of the web into public space. I am interested in the boundaries and fissures between intimacy and surveillance in online communication. I am currently exploring worldbuilding and the creation of virtual environments, inspired by the idea of the bedroom as the site of both the production and consumption of culture. I use this setting to investigate ‘girl’ as both a performance enacted in virtual spaces, and as a set of characteristics imposed onto artificial beings.I perform live as my alter ego Nukleopatra, a combination of robot girlfriend, e-girl influencer, and doomsday prepper. I am interested in digital personhood and the collapse of human-machine binaries. Through my use of digital replicas of the female form, I interrogate objectification of the body, commodification of intimacy, and tension between empowerment and exploitation.
My work is informed by in-depth research into the social, political, and environmental issues around tech capitalism. In my audio work I sample news footage, combined with original lyrics drawn from real-life testimonies on topics including the fossil fuel industry, exploitation of workers in iPhone factories, and the history of chatbots. My current research centres around the commodification of the body in the digital economy through humanoid robots and human-AI relationships. I am also looking into how communities coalesce around virtual worlds to create meaning and experience, and the failure of the corporate ‘metaverse’ to recreate this sense of belonging.
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 completed artist residencies at the Minories gallery and 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 artist development programme. She has an MA in Curating from the University of Essex, received academic prizes for her work on the exhibition Lavender Menace at Art Exchange, and took part in the École du Louvre Summer School. Tilly was the SPACE Colchester Studio Bursary awardee for 2021-22, providing her with a subsidised studio and mentoring, and took part in the Mercury Theatre’s talent development programme 2024-25. Tilly has a background in stage acting with the Mercury Theatre Young Company.