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Back in 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his ultimate important works. Known for introducing self-destructive creations, Metzger had spent a lifetime to responding to global challenges from nuclear disarmament to plant-based living. Through a short video message, he issued a call for a worldwide initiative to honor the environment.

“This is my appeal for your engagement in this international summons for a day of action to reflect on the environment on the fourth of November, 2015,” he announced, inviting cultural workers to stand against the continuing disappearance of living beings. “Our task is to help the public recall of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so art will enter territories that are naturally imaginative.”

The Inception of Nature Remembrance

Thus the environmental art day came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain produced pieces to the ongoing environmental crisis. An organizer, who cared for Metzger in his last days, notes his feeling of immediacy. “He had a great sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I urged him – we must act now. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to authorize this. Take action immediately.”

After Ten Years

Ten years later, Remember Nature may not have sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its influence can still be felt in movements like cultural advocacy groups and environmental protests, as well as in how makers handle the environmental impact of their practices. This is the reason she is reviving it to commemorate its ten-year mark. Part of the featured creators participating now are Yu-Chen Wang and other notable figures. They have all created visual art, recorded calls to action, and created artworks set to be unveiled on the fourth of November next year.

Sowing Change

In conversation with Anya Gallaccio, she is out in a field in the countryside, assisting with planting apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Working with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and somewhat instructive. She describes, the preparation and sowing sessions have already incorporated learning about measurements (measuring out the distances between trees), biology (studying the apple’s DNA), and origins (researching the journeys of how distinct varieties arrived in Britain).

A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that produces scarcolored sap

“Several the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that produces crimson liquid. They all have stories behind them. The historical cultivar was brought over by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and struck the physicist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more thoughtfully connected of nature and the influence we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was urging them, next time they were out, to look on the bag and see what they’re called and the source. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Artistic Responses Nationwide

In London, Youngsook Choi’s work about extinction will include attendees searching an art institution on a mission to find the frozen formations that have been lost in modern times. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the exhibition spaces using special pens. When located, a bell will ring and a recitation will be held to commemorate that particular glacier.

Elsewhere, up in Barrow-in-Furness, an artist will be presenting a free exhibition about our separation from nature, as well as organizing a communal feast, prepared with sustainable ingredients. Over in Newcastle, Uta Kögelsberger is streaming her environmental performance, in which community vocalists begin a project to use music to heal flora in a green space.

Youth Perspectives

Like Gallaccio, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is planning to fill an art space in children’s artwork that document their aspirations and concerns for the years ahead. “Children’s words and images are compelling because they’re not as restricted as grown-ups’,” she says in her public appeal. “The contributions of youth to the world is something truly special and it may inspire a awareness of obligation from us all. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But let’s not make it about worry – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they get a future.”

Remembrance and Reflection

A participant’s work also appeals to children. As a former drag queen, his avian project involves drawing birds and then dressing up as them – and for the event he is planning to address Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also staging a walking tour of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his Pansy Project over the recent decades. The project began when he experienced three incidents of discrimination on a particular day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the site of each occurrence and photograph it – the project has since spiralled to cover events reported by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Apparently wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

He picked the pansy not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a slur – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The plan on 4 November is to place blooms at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has honored before, all the while discussing with those on the guided walk about the events and his recollections. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says mournfully.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and