The title of “Paul Chan: Breathers,” currently on exhibit at the Institute for Contemporary Art, has at least three meanings.

First, it’s what the artist calls his dancing nylon sculptures that are built around industrial fans, recalling the inflatable tube men stationed outside car dealerships. Second, it’s a reference to the severe asthma Chan had as a child; Chan and his family moved from Hong Kong to the American Midwest because of the toll Hong Kong’s air quality was having on his health.

Then there’s the fact that this exhibition comes after Chan took a “breather” from the art world from 2009 to 2014.

A MacArthur Fellowship “genius grant” recipient, Chan’s works have been exhibited at the Guggenheim, the Venice Biennale, the Whitney Biennial and the Museum of Modern Art. Chan is an artist and activist whose works engage with our current political and social moment. He first gained notoriety for his animated works that explore topics that include social justice, violence, war, sex and religion.

After the United States banned its citizens from working in Iraq during the war in 2002, Chan spent a month in Baghdad with antiwar activist group Voices in the Wilderness. That same year, Chan released “Re: The Operation,” a video that imagines what members of the Bush administration would look like if they were fighting and being wounded in Afghanistan.

Following Hurricane Katrina, Chan moved to New Orleans for a time. After witnessing the city’s desolated neighborhoods and engaging with local residents still in need of help, he staged a production of Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” on the streets of the Lower Ninth Ward.

In 2009, Chan decided to take a “breather” and stop making video art, saying he’d hit “peak screen” and could no longer stand looking at video or computer screens.

“He was completely burned out from spending endless hours in front of computers,” explains Sarah Rifky, senior curator and director of programs at the ICA.

After spending a year cleaning up his studio, Chan created Badlands Unlimited, an experimental publishing company that has released more than 50 paper books, e-books and artist editions.

With his return to the art world, Chan has largely eschewed screen-based works. Constructed of nylon, his “breathers” recall Henri Matisse’s “The Dance.” Linked together, the nylon figures perform a sort of dance that’s like watching a looped video. “Breathers,” which is on display at the ICA until Jan. 7 of next year, was curated by the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

Also on exhibition at the ICA is “Young Publisher 99¢ & Up (2),” an installation inspired by Chan’s collaboration with a New York dollar store run by a Chinese immigrant couple that sold Badlands items. Next to these items are examples of Chan’s ongoing “New Proverbs” series of protest signs that are made to look like the posters of the Westboro Baptist Church. Slogans shown include “EAT ASS PRAY LOVE” and “RACISTS LOVE TRUMP.” Hanging from the wall is a knitted figure that represents former President Donald Trump in a Ku Klux Klan hood crossed with the body of Jabba the Hut.

Chan embraces “this idea of being extremely aware of the current political reality that we’re in and everything that comes with that, from patriotism to racism,” Rifky says.

There’s also the artist’s “Arguments” and “Nonprojections” series. The former presents electrical cords plugged into and strung about various objects, including doors, furniture and concrete-filled shoes. The latter features projectors sitting on the floor, projecting light but without a surface to project onto. Chan has referred to these pieces as “works on strike,” asking viewers what these objects become if they no longer function the way they’re supposed to.

Rifky says Chan’s work is “inviting us to question our attitudes and our feelings toward what we do for a living and thinking about what lies between pleasure and work, and how these two relate.

“His work is sort of a tongue in cheek, almost clownish critique of capitalism,” she says. “It’s a show that is easy to access in terms of understanding the power and the potency of art now.”

“Paul Chan: Breathers” runs through Jan. 7, 2024, at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU. For more information, visit icavcu.org. Due to unusual holiday hours, make sure to check if the ICA is open.