Tilly Pizza (*2004, Cambridge) is a multidisciplinary visual artist who focuses on the juxtaposition between the natural and the unnatural. Deeply influenced by the science fiction films that shaped her childhood, she draws upon classic cinematic tropes while maintaining a constant playfulness throughout her work. Rather than treating science fiction purely as an aesthetic reference or imaginative escapism, Tilly uses it as a critical tool, examining present-day anxieties and possibilities and exaggerating them humourlessly. 

Her practice extends beyond traditional photography into an interconnected network of physical and digital mediums. During her UWE Study Abroad programme in Germany, she expanded her practice and incorporates 3D printing and metal casting into her work. This fluid, process-driven approach reflects her understanding of science fiction not as a closed genre, but as an evolving system of world-building, experimentation and transformation. 

For her graduate project, An Artificial Birth, she built a speculative fictional world around a lab-grown species designed and modelled in virtual reality. The species’ metamorphosis unfolds across five pivotal stages. 

Tilly’s creative process often involves adopting the role of a scientist herself, approaching art-making as a form of testing and investigation. Experimentation, unpredictability and discovery are central to her practice. Processes such as photograms, 3D printing and embossing allow her to work intuitively and freely, reconnecting with the childlike instinct of making through curiosity, play and experimentation. 

‘An Artificial Birth’ explores the future of ultra-processed foods through a speculative, science-fiction lens, combining photography, drawing, sculpture and installation. Using physical and digital processes such as 3D scanning, VR modelling, photograms, photoetching and 3D printing, Tilly creates unsettling “specimens” that blur the line between natural and artificial forms, and between science and art, while intentionally surrendering to the weird and the eerie. 

Central to the project is the idea that artistic processes can mirror the industrial transformation of whole foods into chemically altered products. Organic forms are manipulated and reconstructed through VR modelling, reflecting the breakdown, enhancement and reconstruction involved in ultra-processed food production. 

In Tilly’s pseudo-scientific world, scientists obsessively use technology to transform food in pursuit of profit. As the specimens evolve, they become increasingly complex, uncontrollable and mutated. Through storytelling and world-building, the project critiques profit-driven systems and the increasingly artificial direction of modern society. 

In today’s digital climate, with the rise of AI-generated imagery and online misinformation, this fictional world invites audiences to question the ethics and consequences of food production, advertising, subliminal messaging and consumer culture.