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Elise Bell

@eliseybell.bsky.social
1.3K followers 498 following 297 posts

Arts Writer and Commentator with words in Guardian, FT, Plaster Magazine, Independent and Dazed. You can pre-order My Opinionated Guide to Erotic Art here: www.hoxtonminipress.com/products/an…

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Elise Bell @eliseybell.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Need to talk to someone about the absurd intensity of Ben Lerner’s publicity photos
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Elise Bell @eliseybell.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Increasingly going to start calling myself part of the 'Lost Leeds Tram Generation. My last words to my grandchildren before the Dignitas injection takes me will be that Leeds is the biggest city in Europe without a mass transit system.
theguardian.com
‘Field of Dreams stuff’: will Leeds finally get its trams after decades of promises?
Plans for return of such transport have been discussed for years, and not all local people believe that service will come
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Elise Bell @eliseybell.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Keen to read Lost Lambs by Madeleine Cash - in part because the Substack commentary is driving me insane and I haven't even read the thing. I get 'dimes square-adjacent' is annoying, but a lot of the critique amounts to: This plot point is WEIRD and I don't agree with it!
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Tate Collection @tate.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
Angus Fairhurst, Pietà (first version), 1996 botfrens.com/collections/14375/cont…
Presented by Keir McGuiness 2009
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Jeremy Millar @jeremymillar.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Very sad to hear of the closure of CCA, Glasgow, and the loss of all those jobs. I have such fondness for the place, not least as it was the site of one of my finer moments.
A life-size cast of the artist as a drowned man, lying on a gallery floor
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Elise Bell @eliseybell.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
I love John Updike but I had to stop reading ‘Couples’ because it was so compulsively nasty that for the two weeks I was nose deep it genuinely made me a meaner, and like, Activated for a Fight. www.telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fi...
telegraph.co.uk
Cancel John Updike? Not so fast
The great writer has been branded a misogynist and narcissist. Yet as his letters prove, his writing remains uncannily evocative
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Elise Bell @eliseybell.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Obsessed with ‘The Office Party’ episode of Man Alive on iPlayer - a 1969 documentary about an office Christmas party at a London based advertising agency that has it all: marital affairs, eyeliner, drunk directors, a man singing opera in Welsh. Long live the archive!
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stuart @stuartp.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
the point of this isn't that Elon is getting Tolkien wrong
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Elise Bell @eliseybell.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
I have been saying this for years
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Kieran Hurley @kieranhurley.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
what is going on here
post from Your Party:

URGENT MESSAGE TO ALL YOURPARTY.UK SUPPORTERS

This morning, an unauthorised email was sent to all yourparty.uk supporters with details of a supposed membership portal hosted in a new domain name. Legal advice is being taken. That email should be ignored by all supporters. If any direct debits have been set up, they should be immediately cancelled.

The agreed process was announced on 1 August: the Independent Alliance Group of MPs Jeremy Corbyn, Zarah Sultana, Iqbal Mohamed, Adnan Hussain, Shockat Adam and Ayoub Khan are stewarding and accountable for the foundation process for the new party, leading to an inaugural democratic conference in the Autumn.

Earlier this week, we shared new details about the roadmap to the launch, including our plans for mass regional assemblies and our founding conference. Soon, you will be able to turn your support into membership at yourparty.uk, and shape the future of our party and our country.

Jeremy Corbyn MP

Ayoub Khan MP

Adnan Hussain MP

Iqbal Mohamed MP

Shockat Adam MP
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Alex Howlett @alexhowl.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
My story for @service95stories.bsky.social on @sosmediterranee.org's Ocean Viking. The Libyan 'coast guard' opened fire, risking the lives of survivors and crew. It was a privilege to see them in action - truly incredible people #searchandrescue #Mediterranean www.service95.com/the-reality-...
service95.com
The Reality Of Europe’s Border Crisis: This Is Life Onboard Migrant Rescue Ships
It was late afternoon, the heat thick and unmoving, when the call came through. I was the only journalist aboard the Ocean Viking, a search-and-rescue ship patrolling the Central Mediterranean, wh
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Elise Bell @eliseybell.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
The problem with people my age and younger going on Masterchef is that 90% of the time everything they cook feels a liiiitle bit too Mob Kitchen. The Ben Lippett effect needs to be studied.
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Elise Bell @eliseybell.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
Obsessed with the name of this baby carrier.
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
New @hepi-news.bsky.social report shows continued fall in foreign language study in England at A-level. Language teacher recruitment consistently falls well below government targets – in 2024, just 43% of the target was reached. on.ft.com/4l5SYX4 (Full report www.hepi.ac.uk/2025/07/31/n...)
on.ft.com
Students in England shun foreign languages at A-level, report finds
Ofqual figures show a sharp fall in pupils taking exams in French and German
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Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 27/07/2025
One in three Gazans goes multiple days without eating. Malnourished mothers can no longer produce milk to breastfeed their children and hospitals have run out of nutritional supplements to treat gaunt babies on.ft.com/3H9L154
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Elise Bell @eliseybell.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
Incredible wall signage at the Titanic Immersive Experience
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Elise Bell @eliseybell.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Lot of big celebrity deaths of late. I feel in my waters a 2016-wave is approaching. We need to keep tabs on Al Pacino or so help me god
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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
All famines are man-made, all famines are political. Historians of empire and humanitarianism have known this forever. Gaza is not starving, Gaza is being starved, by Israel, and this starvation is enabled by our government and by every other government that does not step in to force food and aid.
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Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
It's time for a new kind of political party - one that belongs to you. Sign up at yourparty.uk.
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Laura Tisdall @lauratisdall.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Terrible. When I got my AHRC PhD funding I applied directly to the AHRC with my own project. Now students are increasingly tied in to what universities and partner organisations want them to do, stifling research independence - plus fewer projects getting funded overall.
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Elise Bell @eliseybell.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
Friends getting married, what a concept!
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Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Yesterday Palestinian mums & kids were queuing at a clinic to get nutritional supplements when Israel attacked. At least 15 people were killed, including at least 9 children. James Elder from UNICEF tells how one of those young children had spoken their first word that morning - mama
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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 10/07/2025
AI technologies and other techno-utopian potentialities are currently ripping through film, television, music and the platforms through which they are distributed. The last time I (a layperson) remember a similar story in the Noble Arts was NFTs, and no one’s talking about Beeple anymore.
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Eliza Goodpasture @elizag.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
I also read this as a consequence of gig economy/doggedly monetising your hobbies. Obviously rich celebrities don't NEED the money, but I think now it's an expectation that you publicise/professionalise anything you do for 'fun'
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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 10/07/2025
Maybe it speaks to an implicit, unspoken recognition of the devaluation of their original art medium (i.e. film, tv, music) and a retreat (however naive) to a medium of art perceived as more ‘concrete’, ‘traditional’ and resistant to devaluation by current trends?
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Elise Bell @eliseybell.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
Real trend at the moment re famous people (actors, musicians etc) releasing to the media news of their artistic practice, almost always some terrible version of abstract expressionism and/or cartoonish version of pop art. A way to get cheap clicks? Media boost with faux sense of intelligence?
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Dani Garavelli @danigaravelli.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
"I was under no illusion that The Collected Prose would solve the mystery, or lay to rest the lie, of how Plath was absolutely ordinary up to the point that she wasn’t." Brilliant Patricia Lockwood piece on Sylvia Plath. Cracking intro, too. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
Patricia Lockwood · Arrayed in Shining Scales: Solving Sylvia Plath
I was under no illusion that The Collected Prose would solve the mystery, or lay to rest the lie, of how Plath was...
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Sodders 🔜 MFF 📌 ❤️💚 #RememberingSlash 💚❤️ @sodders.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
I think about this clip alot.
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Mollie Goodfellow @hansmollman.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
I don’t know why and it’s simply not rational but those electric salt and pepper mills make me really angry, like you know when a dog hates something for no reason and barks every time they see it, that’s how I feel about them
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Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
On LBC @zoejardiniere.bsky.social lists 3 previous instances where military aircraft have been targeted by campaigners in order to prevent them being used in war crimes, and she describes the govt banning Palestine Action as terrorists as an abuse of state power. Well said.
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𝔐𝔞𝔤𝔫𝔢𝔱𝔰 🧲 @magnets.eurosky.social · 11/06/2025
seeing Heat in the cinema is a lifechanging experience
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mickademus @mickademus.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
Shut up and make Don Jon 2
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Postcard From The Past @pastpostcard.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
Dickie & Sylvia caught several sea-trout. Thought of you, your ankle & Bert's bolster. Remember?
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Elise Bell @eliseybell.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
If it is a stunt by some anti AI group, fair play but also I’ll be sick from the humiliation of taking it too earnestly on the internet.
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Tom Usher @tomusher.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
will just be interesting to see when the interests of vying big business will start worrying about what AI will do to many other aspects of the economy that relies on society structured as it currently is. you can't have a city in essence as we have it now when AI has taken all the white collar jobs
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Elise Bell @eliseybell.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
Yeah not to be over-reactionary about this but I really think adverts like this should be illegal. This is plastered all over Old Street station.
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Elise Bell @eliseybell.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
Walked out of Old Street station where the interior ads are almost entirely dedicated to posters that read ‘DON’T HIRE HUMANS’ for a company offering its AI services, to an enormous billboard on Laura Bates’ new book about how AI is reinventing misogyny.
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Elise Bell @eliseybell.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
You know a 3,200 km thru hike across France’s great national parks hates to see me coming
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𝔐𝔞𝔤𝔫𝔢𝔱𝔰 🧲 @magnets.eurosky.social · 30/05/2025
the early days of birth control organisations in cities are just a cavalcade of horror stories
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𝔐𝔞𝔤𝔫𝔢𝔱𝔰 🧲 @magnets.eurosky.social · 30/05/2025
one of the more gut-churning things about the yassified mary barbour mural is that she was one of the people who opened Glasgow's first birth control clinic in an environment of extreme misogyny. the mindset of "let's make her young and sexy" is even wierder in that context
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Kate Bevan @katebevan.com · 29/05/2025
Sci-fi view of The Future: We'll all have flying cars and holidaying on Mars! Disease will be fixed with a quick blast from a Star Trek thingy! The Actual Future:
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Joshua McElwee @joshmcelwee.org · 28/05/2025
Pope Leo at his weekly audience now: "In the Gaza Strip, the intense cries are reaching Heaven more and more from mothers and fathers who hold tightly to the bodies of their dead children."
reuters.com
Pope Leo appeals for Gaza ceasefire, laments deaths of children
Pope Leo appealed on Wednesday for a ceasefire in Gaza, and called on Israel and Hamas militants to "completely respect" international humanitarian law.
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Tandem Magazine @tandemmagazine.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
Museum “rehangs” are everywhere, most recently at London's National Gallery. They inspire furious debate about mixing old art & new politics, but we forget that museums have always done that: their Victorian roots have never been more visible.
tandem-mag.com
The Victoriana of museum “rehangs”
Put on your hoop skirts
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Jen Calleja @jencalleja.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
You can read the amazing review of Fair: The Life-Art of Translation in The Observer online here observer.co.uk/culture/book... @prototypepubs.bsky.social
observer.co.uk
AI can’t match the human art of translation | The Observer
Two translators and a Nobel-winning novelist illuminate an undervalued skill
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Elise Bell @eliseybell.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
All parents want is for their children to also enjoy the latest Guy Ritchie series, Mob Land. Unfortunately, they have achieved their goal.
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Tate Collection @tate.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
Per Kirkeby, Untitled, 1995 #artbots #tate botfrens.com/collections/14375/cont…
Purchased 1998
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Elise Bell @eliseybell.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
Me when I say I like activity dates
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Ana K @anakinsella.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
Such a beautiful, moving piece of writing
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Elise Bell @eliseybell.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
I’ve given up Instagram whilst I’m in Scotland for a week and have already read one book in less than a 24 hour period (Still Born, Guadalupe Nettel) and so maybe there is something in the - Instagram reels is atrophying my brain - discourse
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