Artist Brother Nut uses toy fish in Chinese river to create ‘hotpot’ artwork to raise awareness about environmental pollution

It was the biggest hotpot fish soup anyone has ever seen. Fifty one-metre-long fish were dancing in orange “soup” that ran two kilometres by 15 metres, accompanied by 10 red peppers.

However, no part of the “hotpot” was edible. The fish and peppers were cotton toys stuffed with balloons inside, and the “soup” was a part of the Yueyang River in Zibo, a city in eastern China’s Shandong province.

It was a project to raise public awareness about river pollution, curated by a Chinese performance artist, who goes by the pseudonym Brother Nut to avoid harassment.

Brother Nut first heard about the river, which locals nicknamed “Little Yellow River”, in February when a young man from Zibo sent him a few photos.

He went to the city in March and talked to villagers living along the river. Locals said the river has looked that way for a couple of years. There is no direct evidence of the cause; it is suspected pollution from a local coal mine and chemical factories is the source though. There are also deserted mines nearby, which have been used to dump industrial waste.