Ishu Han is part of a generation of practitioners currently coming to prominence in Japan who advance diverse social and cultural perspectives within the framework of contemporary art. Concerned with the complex relationship between individuals and society, Han is best known for his compelling performance videos. These works typically position the artist in absurd and dreamlike scenarios within larger natural forces, such as shifting tides or fields of snow. Through the videos, he has developed a metaphorical poetic language characterised by its humour, which operates as a form of challenge, and visual restraint, evoking the solitary negotiation of immense social systems and popular norms.

For the Asia Pacific Triennial, Han presents two single-channel video works shot in south-east Queensland. In Not Ocean 2024, he attempts to ‘swim’ across land at a remediated tailings dam at the site of the former Mount Taylor gold mine. Cultivating the waves 2024 finds the artist futilely swinging a chipping hoe into oncoming waves, in reference to the historical and contemporary role of migrants from Asia working in food production. Through these dramatically shot inversions of action and site, Han evokes the integration of labour and migration, staging it as an exhausting dilemma of belonging.