Scott N Andrew

Performance

Scott Andrew’s performance work is rooted in a collaborative, queer-oriented practice that deliberately blurs the boundaries between the physical body, constructed identities, digital spectacle, and communal ritual. His projects blend high-fantasy camp, maximalist aesthetics, and critical social engagement.

This section showcases a range of works that manifest as live performances, immersive installations, and multimedia collaborations:

  • Queer Icons & Mythology: Central to his practice are collaborations like Show Queen and I Am A Haunted House (with Jesse Factor), which excavate LGBTQ+ histories and divas through movement and technology. Other explorations of character and spectacle include The Diva Saga (with Veronica Bleaus).
  • Collaborative & Social Practice: Often working in partnership, major projects include the NEA-funded performance series Fail-Safe (co-curated with Angela Washko and Jesse Stiles), the immersive wellness experience group, and the ephemeral, river-based interventions organized by The Drift (The Drift).
  • Body & Digital Identity: Through his art collective, The Institute for New Feeling, projects like Avalanche, The Cloud, and the hyper-personalized therapy session seek explore the tensions between the celebrity image, the digital self, wellness culture, and embodiment in the 21st century.

These projects reflect a career dedicated to creating vibrant, humorous, and politically relevant multimedia events designed to transform spaces and engage diverse audiences.

Three black silhouettes of figures in hats dancing against a vibrant red background.

Show Queen

2023
Show Queen is a multimedia dance piece by Scott Andrew and Jesse Factor, blending movement and otherworldly video to critique and celebrate the Broadway diva and queer fandom.
Close-up of a person's face and hands under purple lighting, with the word "Variety!" repeated in colorful, stylized text. A strip of thumbnails shows diverse images below.

Activated Anamorphs

2021
Activated Anamorphs is an interdisciplinary project merging wearable sculpture, video, performance, and interactive prosthetics. This work explores identity, mutation, and the augmented body in live events.
A person in a dark bodysuit and red wig is doused with water from a red bucket by another person in a yellow suit.

Bloomfield Garden Club

2020
Scott Andrew and John Musser (Veronica Bleaus) performed as August Artists-in-Residence for the Bloomfield Garden Club, an inclusive salon supporting queer and marginalized artists in Pittsburgh.
Low-angle shot of a person in a pink bodysuit and veil, wearing sunglasses, with arms outstretched holding a light pink fabric. Embellishments include eyes, gold ribbon, and spikes. Blue sky and trees in background.

Chimera

2020
Chimera is a 2020 performance installation by Scott Andrew and Jesse Factor, exploring Donna Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto through sound, dance, and new media, supported by Black Cube.
Collage of two drag queens: one on a glittery floor with green hair, the other in white holding a sword.

The Diva Saga

2019
Multi-channel video installation and performance where Veronica Bleaus, the 'worst drag queen,' battles digital avatars. Explores queer identity, camp, and fantasy through video games, anime, and music.
Close-up of a person singing into a microphone, bathed in red light. Black streaks run from their closed eyes. Background is a blur of green and purple.

Fail-Safe

2019
Fail-Safe is a recurring interdisciplinary variety performance series and safe space for artistic failure. It features works-in-progress in cabaret, sound art, dance, and digitally mediated performance.
Performance art with people on a scaffolding structure under falling water, a gong, and a screen, against a dark, pyramid-like building.

Avalanche

2017
Avalanche (IfNf) is a complex media performance and water product satire. It uses a human filtration system and sound energy to bottle a manufactured avalanche, confronting climate anxiety.
Person in vibrant pink costume with red face paint, fangs, elaborate wig, and a pink teddy bear.

Valentine Vampire

2017
A 2017 video by Scott Andrew exploring queer fetish, occult rituals, and camp aesthetics. Features performance, hybrid monsters, and samples of Dolly Parton and Penny Dreadful.
Woman in blue quilted jacket lying on stone ledge, looking at phone, with people and modern building in background.

Other Sky

2017
Other Sky is a subtle intervention by the Institute for New Feeling (Scott Andrew, Nina Sarnelle, Agnes Bolt) where 50 people watch a fictional severe weather forecast on their personal devices while wandering through the Getty Center at dusk, culminating in a communal digital rain shower. A critical commentary on crisis and screen voyeurism.
A woman in a light blue bikini bottom and top from behind, pole dancing in a club with pink and purple lights in the background.

RPM

2017
RPM by the Institute for New Feeling and The Drift used performative actions to create five public "energy vortexes" across Pittsburgh (rivers, strip clubs, Laundromats). A collaborative urban intervention for Open Engagement 2015.
Two people in a gallery, one on a rug on all fours, the other standing; a man with a red hat touches a woman kneeling on a rug.

Accumulation No. 2

2017
Performance art by Institute for New Feeling (Scott Andrew, Nina Sarnelle, Agnes Bolt) at MoMA. Participants "collect dust" alongside Yayoi Kusama's iconic work.
Two people lie face down in grey, rocky alcoves. One is pale with bare legs, the other has tattoos and is covered by a white sheet.

Furthering Cream

2016
Furthering Cream is an Institute for New Feeling (IfNf) product—an accelerant aging cream grown and packaged in Southern California. The work critiques the digital wellness industry.
Six perfume bottles with clear caps, varying in liquid color from dark brown to light yellow, on a reflective white shelf.

Perfume

2016
Conceptual fragrance line by Institute for New Feeling (Scott Andrew, Agnes Bolt, Nina Sarnelle). Six scents blend natural herbs with urban/psychological notes.
Woman in headphones and black clothing hunched over a textured, grey, abstract sculpture, reflected on a circular mirror.

seek

2015
seek is a 20-minute private interactive performance by the Institute for New Feeling (Scott Andrew, Nina Sarnelle, Agnes Bolt) that uses misused search engines to generate a clairvoyant video reading of the participant's future.
Two performers against a green screen and red curtains. One in a pink dress and blonde wig holds a selfie stick; the other in

E.S.P. TV

2015
Institute for New Feeling (IfNf) performance for E.S.P. TV #78 (2015). A collaborative live product display taped in Pittsburgh, exploring televisual language.
Person in leopard print, blonde wig, and dramatic makeup eating cauliflower.

A Girl Called Dusty

2015
A Girl Called Dusty (2015) features a performance video and the poem 'Dusty Says Goodbye!' which explores glitter, queer identity, consumerism, and eternal beauty through camp and critique.
Four people with straws blowing into a bowl of dry ice vapor, red background.

The Cloud

2014
The Institute for New Feeling (Scott Andrew, Nina Sarnelle, Agnes Bolt) presents "The Cloud," a conceptual performance featuring a 3-course gastronomical experience made entirely of foam and air.
Performance art with a person in a colorful, tiered costume on a stage, surrounded by an audience.

Constructing Identity

2013
A 2013 performance and costume project where LGBTQIA youth created garments exploring identity and mythology, culminating in a fashion show at the Pittsburgh Makerfaire.
People lying on a dark floor under blue light, some with eyes closed, wearing various casual clothes.

group

2013
group is an immersive, 90-minute audiovisual performance blending rock concerts, spiritual rituals, and group therapy. Audiences participate in guided exercises across 7 conceptual platforms.
Performance art on stage: Two figures in costume tug on a decorated pole. One in black fur with a red tutu, the other in white with a veil, next to a large yellow vulva-shaped prop.

Pleasure Strike!

2013
A multimedia performance blending Freudian complexes, MMA, and Jim Henson fantasy. Explores a mutant, gelatinous seedpod’s life cycle of love, violence, and seduction.
Three figures in a dimly lit room with ritualistic objects on the floor, including a glowing green eye and skull.

Séance

2013
A 2013 performance featuring reptilian mediums channeling remote ghostly presences via live Google Hangout projection. Explores spiritualism and digital embodiment.
Shadow puppet show with a large tree-like figure, bears, and other animals silhouetted against a bright white screen.

The Bear King

2012
Scott Andrew's 2012 performance, "The Bear King," an immersive narrated shadow play exploring a powerful new origin myth, premiered at the Andy Warhol Museum.
Two performers in alien costumes on stage, one green, one silver, in front of a cosmic projection.

Multiversal Alliance

2012
Multimedia performance piece "Multiversal Alliance" (2012) by Scott Andrew and Erin Womack, presented at TedxYouth Day at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh.
Four-panel video still of a party with people, confetti, and debris. Top left: person bending over in a messy room. Top right

Gutai Beach Party

2012
Documentation of the 2012 collaborative performance and installation, Gutai Beach Party, held at Leslie Pool in Pittsburgh, featuring Scott Andrew, Suzie Silver, and others.
View from inside a dark, textured hole looking up at a bright blue sky with white clouds and a faint pink streak.

The Drift

2012
The Drift was a multimedia floating performance series (2012-2016) on Pittsburgh's rivers, featuring site-specific video, dance, and interventions on custom-built hexagonal rafts.
Four people in unicorn masks and leotards, with high heels and horse tails, against a vibrant, swirling background.

Ponycorn Apocalypse

2012
Scott Andrew's absurdist multimedia performance imagining the end of the world as a joyful ponycorn mating ritual around a glowing crystal, responding to 'end times' hysteria.
Digital painting of a person with dark skin, red lips, and boxing gloves, surrounded by red and pink roses.

Trans-Q Television / TQ Live!

2012-2024
Trans-Q Television is the seminal video variety show co-produced by Scott Andrew, reveling in the mutability of genders and sexualities. A Dadaist mix of performance, comedy, and queer theory.
Figure in ornate costume with four eyes, centered in a black background. Figure is illuminated by yellow light and shadowed by a large hand.

Liquid Escort 5000

2012
Liquid Escort 5000 (2012) is a performance and video work by Scott Andrew and Erin Womack, exploring the projected simulacra of pleasure and viscous ecstasy.
A person stands inside a curved, translucent screen with vibrant, sparkling blue, green, and purple light patterns.

Sploshing The Void II

2012
Kinetic multi-channel video installation (2012) exploring queer futurity through a disorienting, hallucinogenic inter-dimensional portal. Features movement by Mitsuko Clarke-Verdery.
Close-up of a circular, translucent, green-tinted object with radiating creases, seen through a textured green surface.

AutoSpa

2012
Scott Andrew's 2012 performance installation, AutoSpa, offers a 20-minute, in-car spa treatment including facial, massage, and aroma-sauna for driver and vehicle.
Performance art with two people in shiny, futuristic costumes amidst clear plastic and crumpled silver foil.

Art Olympics Theater

2010
The Trans-Millennial Conquistadors arrive from the future (2008) to disrupt space-time using inflatable time pods and sound rituals in this immersive performance work.
Performance art with three figures in elaborate costumes around a glowing, jagged white structure.

Starship Astrotron

2010
Join the crash-landed crew of the Starship Astrotron! This interactive installation by Scott Andrew, Adam Atkinson, and Michael McParlane transforms visitors into alien adventurers.