BRB brings together three North-West-based artists and members of FACT’s Studio/Lab who explore how constant connectivity is reshaping our understanding of ourselves, each other, and the world around us.
BRB (meaning 'be right back') is internet slang used on early messaging platforms to indicate a temporary step away from the screen. Today, that separation feels harder to find. The boundaries between online and offline have collapsed as digital platforms have become more entwined with our personal and professional lives. We are always connected, contactable and consuming new information.
Through film, animation, installation and playable works, Livi Wilmore, Mrs Luva-Luva and Ellie Hoskins explore the emotional and psychological impact of living in this way. Livi Wilmore transforms addictive digital platforms into a soft play centre for adult minds. Mrs Luva-Luva uses sculpture and film to question our agency and sense of self in a world where personal data is a lucrative commodity. Ellie Hoskins' towering rollercoaster captures the mania and mundanity of contemporary existence. Across these three installations, BRB presents the internet not simply as a technology but as an inhabitable environment. Together, the artists ask what happens when attention becomes a commodity, identities become platforms, and being "away" is no longer as simple as typing three letters.
Alive in a world of car parks, armed with an air fryer and a fake baby (2026)
Ellie Hoskins combines sculpture, video, text and sound to create installations that blend personal memories, the excesses of internet culture and ordinary observations into immersive fictional worlds. Balancing humour with melancholy, her work finds unexpected emotion in the overlooked details of everyday contemporary life.
Tap Tap Tippety Tap (2026)
Tap Tap Tippety Tap follows a woman whose emotional vulnerability and transparency online transform her into a featureless lump to be harvested and sold at the surreal LLM (Large Language Model) Supermarket.
Padded Cell (2026)
n this new work, Livi looks at how the intuitive user interfaces and friendly ‘padded cell’ graphic designs pioneered by Kai Krause in the 1990s have been co-opted by those wanting us glued to the web for capitalist gain. Her work references a time when digital spaces were becoming user-friendly, colourful and easily accessible.
by Livi Wilmore
Special Event
Exhibition Opening
FACT
Join us after-hours to celebrate the opening of three exciting new exhibitions!
Workshop
Creative Writing Workshop with Ellie Hoskins
FACT
Join current exhibiting artist Ellie Hoskins for a special creative writing workshop centred around autofiction.
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