A new group exhibition at FACT brings together Ellie Hoskins, Mrs Luva-Luva, and Livi Wilmore, three North West-based artists exploring how the internet is reshaping identity. Through film, animation and interactive artworks, the exhibition examines the emotional and psychological effects of living online. Opening at a moment when algorithmic feeds and online identities increasingly shape everyday life, BRB asks what constant connectivity is doing to relationships, attention spans, and users’ sense of self.
All three artists are members of FACT‘s Studio/Lab, the centre’s production and research space supporting artists working with emerging technologies. With access to specialist facilities, curatorial support, and technical expertise, they have developed ambitious new installations that respond to the realities of contemporary digital life. The exhibition’s title is taken from the internet abbreviation brb (‘be right back’), popularised on early messaging platforms to signal a temporary step away from the screen. Audiences are invited to
consider how, today, it feels almost impossible to break away from digital spaces, with a constant stream of notifications and feeds designed to keep users scrolling.
Examining the ever-blurring boundaries between online and offline life, the artists reflect on how users consume information and remain connected. Ellie Hoskins’ towering rollercoaster captures the mania and mundanity of contemporary existence; Mrs Luva-Luva’s immersive
environment and film work question agency in a world where personal data is a lucrative commodity; and Livi Wilmore takes inspiration from digital spaces to construct an adult soft play centre that acts as a metaphor for internet addiction.
For BRB, Ellie Hoskins presents a new body of work titled Alive in a world of car parks, armed with an air fryer and a fake baby (2026). The installation centres around an audio work that imagines a conversation between the artist and her fictional baby. Beginning as a comforting fairy tale, the narrative gradually unravels into reflections on technology, loneliness and the search for connection. A large-scale sculpture depicts a wonky, dilapidated roller coaster populated with figures clinging to and drifting along its tracks.
Embedded throughout the structure, screens display animations of ordinary moments from the artist’s life, with Hoskins’ face emerging unexpectedly from familiar objects and environments. Shifting between humour and melancholy, the work reflects on the information overload across digital media and the collapse of shared narratives.
Mrs Luva-Luva explores how agency, privacy and individuality can be preserved as digital systems, and how AI tools become increasingly integrated in everyday life. Within the gallery, visitors find an eerie supermarket with aisles lined by singing homogeneous lumps.
At the centre of her installation is the playful yet dark film Tap Tap Tippety Tap (2026), which follows a woman whose emotional vulnerability and transparency online transforms her into a featureless lump to be harvested at the surreal ‘Large Language Model Supermarket’.
Borrowing the optimistic language and colourful aesthetics often adopted by influencers while critiquing the platforms that they exist on, Mrs Luva-Luva’s work considers how social
media encourages self-expression, while simultaneously flattening identity to branding and turning personal data into a commodity.
Throughout her practice, Livi Wilmore combines mixed reality, speculative fiction, and gaming technologies to explore nostalgia, escapism, and the influence digital spaces hold. Reflecting on how relationships with the internet have changed dramatically over the past decades, Wilmore contrasts the exploratory spirit of the early web with today’s algorithmic platforms. Her new work, titled Padded Cell (2026) draws on nostalgia for the early days of the internet, taking inspiration from the intuitive interfaces and playful ‘padded cell’ graphic designs pioneered by Kai Krause in the 1990s. For BRB, Wilmore presents a soft-play environment for adults, creating an immersive, ominous installation inspired by Krause’s ‘padded cell’ that merges the aesthetics of early computer graphics and dopamine-driven contemporary platforms. By creating a physical metaphor for the online experience, Wilmore considers how digital spaces have shifted from places of discovery to systems engineered to make logging off increasingly difficult.
Across 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.
Nina Newbold, Exhibition Producer, said:
“Working closely with local artists to present BRB has been a privilege. Using FACT’s Studio/Lab, Ellie, Livi, and Mrs Luva-Luva have developed new digital elements for their artworks while also receiving one-to-one technical and curatorial support from the team. Bringing together three immersive installations, BRB explores the increasingly blurred boundaries between online and offline spaces. Inviting audiences into their worlds, the artists ask us to consider the impact this is having on our
day-to-day lives and to reflect on how constant connectivity is reshaping our understanding of ourselves, each other, and the world around us.”
Ellie Hoskins, Artist, said:
“Becoming an artist member has been pivotal in the development of a digital strand within my art practice. Within FACT’s Studio/Lab I was able to use professional software and equipment to create an ambitious animation, and this in turn led to the opportunity to develop a new video, sculpture, and audio installation for BRB. I’m extremely grateful for the ongoing support and encouragement from the team, as well as the ambitious community of creatives who I’ve got to know through FACT. It’s exciting to witness what’s being built for digital artists in Liverpool, and I’m grateful to be a part of it.”