IF I WAS MARRIED TO TOMMY FURY by Ellie Hoskins

Over ten days in March, Hamilton Vault Studios bank vault gallery transformed into a raw, intimate world of fantasy, humour, and sadness in IF I WAS MARRIED TO TOMMY FURY, a bold new installation by Ellie Hoskins. Created during a three-week residency, the work invited visitors to step into an imagined universe—one where the artist’s very real sadness met the surreal balm of marrying reality TV star and boxer, Tommy Fury.

In this immersive installation, text, sculpture and diaristic writing collided in unexpected ways. Hoskins brought her signature voice, wry, deeply honest, and disarmingly funny into every corner of the gallery. From hand-scrawled confessions to towering, slightly absurd sculptural forms, the work struck a delicate balance between existential despair and a longing for comfort, celebrity, and connection.

At its heart, the installation posed a simple, strange, and striking question: What if a made-for-TV boxer, could fix everything? The answer, of course, was never straightforward. Visitors found themselves laughing, then catching their breath. The humour never masked the melancholy, it held it.

This wasn’t about Tommy Fury the person. It was about what he represented: a symbol of escape, stability, affection, everything that might cushion the hard edges of modern life. Hoskins peeled back the curtain on that fantasy, inviting us all to reflect on our own coping mechanisms, our own cravings for safety, and the elaborate inner lives we construct just to get through the day.

As we look back on the show, what stays with us is the softness beneath the absurdity, the bravery in the vulnerability, and the way the artist held a mirror to both herself and her audience, with laughter and with tenderness.