Yin Xiuzhen is a Beijing-based Chinese artist who often responds to social issues through sculptures and installations. Washing River (1995) is one of her most well-known works, and it also marked her transition from creating oil paintings to conceptual sculptures. In this piece, she extracted ten cubic metres of polluted water from the Funan River in Chengdu. She converted the water into ice bricks, which she placed on the riverbank. She then invited passers-by to clean the bricks. After two days, the ice melted and flowed back into the river.

China experienced significant changes in the 1980s and 1990s. The country’s rapid economic development turned many rural areas into industrial cities filled with factories. Consequently, pollution became increasingly severe in these cities, with Chengdu being a prime example. In ancient times, Chengdu’s Funan River was called the Zhuojin River. Poets from the Tang Dynasty praised the river’s beauty and described it as a place where flowers bloomed on both sides as waves from the spring breeze washed away the sand.^[1] However, as economic growth took precedence, its impact on the environment was often neglected, and what was once considered the ‘mother river’ in the hearts of Chengdu residents became a disdained sewer that received 80 percent of Chengdu’s wastewater.^[2] It was not until 1993 that the problems related to the Funan River were taken seriously, and a comprehensive revitalisation project was officially launched to address the issues.

Yin’s Washing River played out against this backdrop. She turned a social issue into something concrete, visible, and tangible. By presenting large blocks of contaminated ice to pedestrians, Yin forced them to confront the dangers of environmental pollution. As Yin recalled: ‘Some passers-by would stop and look. They did not know what was happening at first, but when we started to talk about the river’s polluted waters, they would ask many questions and would spontaneously participate [in cleaning the ice].’^[3]

In recent years, many environmental activists have taken radical actions against art museums and have accused these institutions of caring more about protecting works of art than protecting the Earth and humankind. When art enters the discussion, some may wonder if the art-making process harmed the environment, whether it is through the use of toxic paints or the excessive consumption of natural resources such as wood and metal. However, the fallacy of this discourse is that it defines the materials as the art itself. The value of Yin’s Washing River, for example, goes beyond its materiality. The work involves just the water that is drawn from the river and later returned to its source. Its artistic value does not lie in the formation of the ice as a material. Instead, its value is found in the labour process of washing the ice bricks and the sublimated act of sculpting that creates a space for the community to connect and participate in an activity that improves society. Washing River demonstrates that the connection between art and environmental sustainability is not limited to recycling or upcycling materials. Art can address fundamental issues in society and even turn ideas into action. These actions may appear futile, but what matters is that they allow people to develop a true sense of empathy for the natural environment.

In 1998, Chengdu’s comprehensive revitalisation project for the Funan River received the Scroll of Honour award from the UN-Habitat. After more than two decades of continuous effort, the water quality of the river shows a notable improvement.

Yin’s Washing River exemplifies how art can respond to pressing social issues. Through the tangible process of cleaning dirty ice bricks, Yin encourages the audience to reflect on and discuss environmental issues. In this sense, Washing River is reminiscent of the ‘social sculpture’ idea proposed by German conceptual artist Joseph Beuys. Beuys believed that ‘everyone is an artist’, and he said that if everyone participated in shaping the social sculpture of life, the world would change.