Squeeze Me In explores how identity is rediscovered and transformed through clothing.
The exhibition combines craft processes—dyeing, sewing, and beading—with spatial considerations and the complex history of corsetry as frameworks for examining acceptance and belonging. Through material exploration and the absence of the feminine body, the artist represents restriction, boundaries, and encaging using both hard and soft materials, drawing on her background in fashion design.
The installation translates the experience of movement and adaptation faced by migrants through sculpted textiles shaped from the artist's own body. The pieces incorporate rigilene (a flexible plastic boning commonly used in corsets) and glass beads to reveal how foreign bodies adapt and fit into established systems. Each sculpted textile incorporates glass beads in matching colors, suggesting the tension between blending into foreign environments and maintaining distinct identity. The beads are sewn in a liminal space between the boning channels, with varying densities and some emerging on the surface, creating a visual narrative about origin and patterns of human migration.
The repetitive acts of sewing and boning each channel evoke community reliance and interdependency, while the dyeing process speaks to acceptance and growth through absorption. The installation is deeply connected to the artist's personal experiences as a migrant and a person of color who has been experiencing racial injustice and discrimination in the West.
Bio
Beatrice Opokua Atencah is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Art in the School of Visual Arts (SoVA) at Penn State. As a visual artist and curator, she works primarily with textiles, installation, and sculpture, drawing on techniques from her fashion background. Her practice features manipulative and undulating forms that activate space through the interplay of hard and soft materials, treating the windows and walls as her mannequin. Through her work, Atencah explores how fiber art redefines our understanding of humanity and creates inclusive experiences within every environment.
Atencah's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in the United States, Ghana, and Turkey, and she has presented research at the African Studies Association (ASA) and the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA). She is currently curating and spearheading a travel exhibition that examines the dialogue between contemporary African artists and African art from the 15th through 19th centuries.
Funding Statement
This project was made possible through the generous support of the Woskob Family Gallery. Additional funding was provided by The Research and Creative Activity Grant Program in Racial Injustice, Anti-Discrimination, and Democratic Practices Grant through the College of Arts and Architecture at Penn State.
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