Re:generating Creativity x Black History Month: Standing Firm in Power and Pride

This October, CSM’s Re:generating Creativity exhibition meets Black History Month in an intersection of art, identity and resilience. Both celebrate imagination as a form of strength, and creativity as a tool for change.

At the heart of Re:generating Creativity is a simple but profound question: What does it mean to be human in a more-than-human world? The exhibition showcases the work of recent graduates and staff across the 3 new CSM Schools of Thought; Culture, Systems and Material. It asks how love, hope and humour can guide us through an ever-changing world.

This year’s Black History Month theme, “Standing Firm in Power and Pride,” resonates deeply with the work of exhibiting artists Iman Sidonie-Samuels and Tegan Chinogurei, both BA Fine Art graduates whose practices explore memory, heritage and Black British identity through material, sound and storytelling. Their art not only reflects the exhibitions' central themes but also speaks directly to the spirit of pride, resistance and belonging that Black History Month embodies.

Iman Sidonie-Samuels : Preserving Stories, Reclaiming Space

“I’m a graduate from the 3D pathway on the Fine Art course,” Iman begins. “The work I’m showing is 'Where Will They Keep Our Memories?' It’s a section of my degree show, and the ideas came from time I spent during my DPS year in the archives of the Museum of Art and Design in Bordeaux.”

It was there, among carefully categorised artifacts and colonial-era materials, that Iman began to question how history is stored and whose stories get told. “I found that everything was catalogued in such a sterile way,” she explains. “Each object has a story to tell, but most of the time it’s reduced to numbers and data. I wanted to bring a personal element into that space — to put emotion and memory back into the system.”

Her installation recreates that archival environment using steel industrial shelves she found in the CSM Swap Shop. These become vessels for recorded voices, personal objects and stories collected from her own family. The result is a hybrid space between the institutional and the domestic, the official and the intimate.

For Iman, this work extends far beyond personal memory. It is about reclaiming the power of objects that have been historically silenced. “Museums hold so many artefacts from across the world, but something like 90% of their collections are hidden in storage. 'Standing firm in power and pride' to me, means putting those items back in the spotlight, giving them the chance to express where they’re from and what they mean.”

She sees creativity itself as an act of resistance. “Creativity comes in so many forms, and so does resistance. It’s not limited to one medium. You can see that across the exhibition — from textiles to sculpture to digital work. Each piece says: these stories and traditions will not die out. That’s power.”

Tegan Chinogurei: Reimagining British Identity

Tegan Chinogurei approaches similar ideas from a different angle. Their sculptural installation, 'You Can’t Park There, Mate,' turns the familiar into the mythical, blending humour, history and social critique. “The work is a reimagined horse and carriage,” They explain. “It’s inspired by highway robberies that used to happen in my hometown, Stevenage. But instead of a horse and carriage, I’ve built a wooden Vauxhall Corsa and an XL Bully chariot.”

At first glance, the piece feels playful and absurd, but beneath the humour lies a layered commentary on class, nationalism and Black British identity. “I wanted to imagine a modern-day highway robbery,” They say. “As I started making the work, I thought about what personal belongings I’d steal. The story evolved into something about family photos and childhood toys — the everyday things that become relics of who we are.”

For Tegan, 'Standing Firm in Power and Pride' means using art to refuse invisibility. “To me, standing firm means to share your story and share your voice. Through the act of making, you resist being erased.”

Their practice often reclaims and reconfigures British symbols — flags, crests and other imagery often associated with exclusion or nationalism. “I definitely think art is an act of rebellion,” they say. “Art is protest. I look at colonial symbols that have been weaponised against people of colour and rework them into something new. It’s an act of reclamation — challenging prejudice while showing my lived experience as a second-generation immigrant.”

Tegan names artists like Rene Matić, Simon Barclay and Jasleen Kaur as inspirations for how they capture the tensions and pride of diasporic life. “The representation that comes from artists telling their own stories changes the narrative,” they explain. “It reflects a multicultural Britain and opens up conversations beyond the art world that really need to happen.”

Through humour and boldness, Tegan’s work invites audiences to laugh and think at the same time. “I hope visitors take away a sense of representation — to see themselves in art if they’ve never felt seen before,” they say. “I use British iconography as a storytelling vessel, but it’s also a mirror. It asks who gets to belong here.”