To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond
E458749
"To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond" is a 1997 performance artwork by Zhang Huan in which he assembled a group of migrant workers into a fishpond to symbolically alter its water level, highlighting issues of collective presence, labor, and social marginalization in contemporary China.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4642058 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond Context triple: [Zhang Huan, notableWork, To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond]
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A.
Pond
Pond is a common English surname of topographic origin, typically referring to someone who lived near a pond.
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B.
Fish Tank
Fish Tank is a 2009 British social-realist drama film directed by Andrea Arnold, known for its gritty portrayal of a troubled teenage girl and featuring an acclaimed performance by Michael Fassbender.
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C.
Planera aquatica
Planera aquatica is a deciduous, water-tolerant tree species native to the southeastern United States, commonly known as the water elm and typically found in swampy or floodplain habitats.
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D.
The Pond
The Pond is a picturesque man-made lake in the southeast corner of New York City's Central Park, known for its tranquil scenery, wildlife, and views of the surrounding skyline.
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E.
The Pond
"The Pond" is a painting by British artist L. S. Lowry, depicting an industrial urban scene in his distinctive naïve style populated by matchstick-like figures.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond Target entity description: "To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond" is a 1997 performance artwork by Zhang Huan in which he assembled a group of migrant workers into a fishpond to symbolically alter its water level, highlighting issues of collective presence, labor, and social marginalization in contemporary China.
-
A.
Pond
Pond is a common English surname of topographic origin, typically referring to someone who lived near a pond.
-
B.
Fish Tank
Fish Tank is a 2009 British social-realist drama film directed by Andrea Arnold, known for its gritty portrayal of a troubled teenage girl and featuring an acclaimed performance by Michael Fassbender.
-
C.
Planera aquatica
Planera aquatica is a deciduous, water-tolerant tree species native to the southeastern United States, commonly known as the water elm and typically found in swampy or floodplain habitats.
-
D.
The Pond
The Pond is a picturesque man-made lake in the southeast corner of New York City's Central Park, known for its tranquil scenery, wildlife, and views of the surrounding skyline.
-
E.
The Pond
"The Pond" is a painting by British artist L. S. Lowry, depicting an industrial urban scene in his distinctive naïve style populated by matchstick-like figures.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
contemporary art work
ⓘ
performance artwork ⓘ |
| aimsTo |
draw attention to marginalized populations
ⓘ
visualize the impact of collective human presence ⓘ |
| artHistoricalContext | Chinese avant-garde performance art of the 1990s ⓘ |
| artisticMedium |
live performance
ⓘ
photographic documentation ⓘ video documentation ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | China ⓘ |
| creator | Zhang Huan ⓘ |
| depicts |
crowded human bodies standing in water
ⓘ
incremental rise of water level ⓘ |
| documentedIn |
art history publications on Zhang Huan
ⓘ
exhibition catalogues on contemporary Chinese performance art ⓘ |
| genre | performance art ⓘ |
| hasAudience | contemporary art viewers ⓘ |
| hasEffect | symbolic alteration of water level ⓘ |
| hasInterpretation |
commentary on the power of collective bodies to effect change
ⓘ
critique of social marginalization of migrant workers in China ⓘ |
| hasSetting | outdoor urban environment ⓘ |
| hasTheme |
collective action
ⓘ
invisibility of migrant labor ⓘ politics of the body ⓘ relationship between individuals and environment ⓘ social inequality ⓘ state of contemporary China in the 1990s ⓘ |
| hasTitle | To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond ⓘ |
| inception | 1997 ⓘ |
| languageOfTitle | English ⓘ |
| locationOfCreation | Beijing ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
body and space
ⓘ
collective presence ⓘ labor ⓘ migrant workers ⓘ social marginalization ⓘ urbanization in China ⓘ |
| movement | contemporary Chinese art ⓘ |
| notableWorkOf | Zhang Huan ⓘ |
| partOf | Zhang Huan’s early performance works ⓘ |
| performer |
Zhang Huan
ⓘ
group of migrant workers ⓘ |
| timePeriod | late 20th century ⓘ |
| uses |
fishpond
ⓘ
human bodies ⓘ |
| workPeriod | Zhang Huan’s Beijing period ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond Description of subject: "To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond" is a 1997 performance artwork by Zhang Huan in which he assembled a group of migrant workers into a fishpond to symbolically alter its water level, highlighting issues of collective presence, labor, and social marginalization in contemporary China.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.