A/Bel Andrade

Abel [A/BEL] Andrade (b. 1996, Aotearoa) is a disabled-transmasc artist and researcher. A/BEL is a sculptor, filmmaker, and performance artist, regularly working in multiplicity through the performance of repetitive obsessive actions and stims. They live with a chronic nervous system disorder that causes them to faint, imbuing their practice with an embodied analysis of systemic collapse or intentional failure. A/BEL has obtained an MA in Performance Studies at New York University (2026), an MFA in Studio Art at Parsons School of Design (2023), and a BFA in Sculpture and Installation at OCAD University (2020). They have participated in the Artscape Launchpad Residency (Toronto, 2020), Uncool Artist International Residency (Brooklyn, 2024), 2B Remote Artist Residency (2024), and The Canopy Program (2024-25). They have received funding and production support from the Canada Council for the Arts (2024, 2026) and the National Endowment for the Arts via DisArts (2024), alongside awards from the Toronto International Film Festival (2015), SICK Magazine (2023), and educational scholarships from OCAD, Parsons, and NYU.

Project Title: Trans-Metallurgical Alchemy: Metalworking as a Queer Futurity

Project Description: "Performing Trans-Metallurgical Alchemy: Metalworking as a Site of Queer Futurity" examines metalworking as a performative practice of transformation through which bodies, materials, and social relations are continuously remade. Drawing on performance studies, queer theory, and contemporary iron arts, the project investigates foundries, forges, and casting practices as sites where processes of melting, alloying, and reformation offer alternative models for understanding gender transition, collective labor, and becoming. Through a combination of archival research, performance analysis, and autoethnographic fieldwork, the project argues that metalworking stages a form of queer futurity grounded not in stability or fixed identity, but in ongoing material transformation.

Project Inspiration: Alchemy, Mythology, Labor, Transmutation, Materiality, Industry