There is a point in time when I had been one of me.

My personality has been detached from the other personality of mine, which is now.

So you feel like you are talking about somebody else?

Yes.

Because, it is not only that circumstances changed me.

I also changed myself, consciously.

I had to see at some point that I was somewhere, some place.

I could not be everywhere or nowhere.

It was my declaration that when I get married, I will no longer do revolutionary politics.

Although I repent it now.

*****

Eshan Rafi (b. 1986, Lahore) is an artist working across time-based, lens-based and choreographic practices. Their works deal with the intersection of political events and personal archives, often staging the impossibility of representation. Rafi is an alumni of the Home Workspace Program at Ashkal Alwan in Beirut, Lebanon, and has participated in residencies at Fondazioni Antonio Ratti in Como, Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art in Berlin, and the Banff Centre for the Arts, among others. Their work has been exhibited, performed and screened internationally including at Links Hall, Chicago; SummerWorks Lab, Toronto; Sharjah Film Platform; M:ST 9 Performance Art Biennale, Calgary and neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst, Berlin. Rafi’s artistic practice rests on a history of community building in queer of color communities, including working in collectives to develop decolonial and anti-capitalist pedagogies. They have participated in anti-surveillance and hacker spaces such as at the Allied Media Conference in Detroit and Chaos Computer Congress in Leipzig, informing their research into how information and images circulate. Their work has been extensively supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council, as well as by the generosity of queer and BIPoC communities. In 2025, they are a sessional lecturer at the University of Toronto, and a danceWEB scholar at ImPulsTanz Vienna. Rafi holds an MFA in Art, Theory and Practice from Northwestern University (2023) and a BFA and BEd in Visual Arts from York University (2013). More information at eshanrafi.com.

Roman Susan celebrates and shares the work of artists in the Great Lakes region. We create cultural engagements that provide resources and paid opportunities for artists. We are Chicago-based. We are artist-led. We are experimental and learning. For more information, please visit romansusan.org.

For further info: romansusan.org/my-father-s-imagination or contact art@romansusan.org

Images courtesy of Eshan Rafi

This program is partially supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council Agency through awards from the National Endowment for the Arts. This project is partially supported by a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events.

Roman Susan Art Foundation NFP is supported in part by 160 individual donors, Gen Ops Plus Grants from The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, Hyde Park Art Center Artists Run Chicago Fund, The Reva and David Logan Foundation, The MacArthur Funds for Culture, Equity, and the Arts at the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, 6018North, AD3 Innovation Bootcamp, An Sylvia Exhibitions, Foundation Source, Lucky Pierre, Story Luck, and in-kind support from Cargo Collective, Lawyers for the Creative Arts, and Sloane Communications. To support this ongoing work, please visit romansusan.org/support.

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Tags: Chicago, Eshan Rafi, Eshan Rafi: my father’s imagination, Rogers Park, Roman Susan