🔗 Share this article

In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his final significant endeavors. Recognized for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting human struggles from peace activism to vegetarianism. Through a short video message, he requested support for a global day of action to remember nature.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your involvement in this global appeal for a day of action to reflect on the environment on the fourth of November, 2015,” he announced, encouraging cultural workers to resist the steady eradication of species. “Our responsibility is to remind people of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into territories that are inherently creative.”

The Inception of Remember Nature

In this way the Nature Remembrance initiative was born, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain produced pieces to the ongoing environmental crisis. An organizer, who worked closely with Metzger in his last days, notes his drive for action. “He had a strong sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I just said – we must act now. No need to pause for sponsorship or for anyone to approve this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

After ten years, the initiative did not incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but Joelson believes its influence can still be seen in initiatives like cultural advocacy groups and climate activism networks, as well as in how creatives consider the eco-friendliness of their work. For this purpose she is reviving it to commemorate its ten-year mark. Among the key participants taking part currently are Yu-Chen Wang and other notable figures. Each has created visual art, recorded calls to action, and developed pieces set to be unveiled on the fourth of November next year.

Planting Hope

When speaking to the artist, she is out in a field in the countryside, helping plant apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and part learning experience. As she explains, the planning and planting sessions have already included learning about mathematics (calculating the distances between trees), genetics (discussing the genetic makeup), and origins (mapping the backgrounds of how different apples arrived in Britain).

Several the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that produces crimson liquid

“Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that produces red juice. They all have background narratives. The decio apple was imported by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that fell from a tree and struck the physicist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more actively aware of the natural world and the control we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was urging them, when they go shopping, to read the label and see what they’re called and their origin. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Across the Country

Within the city, one artist’s Book of Loss will include attendees exploring an art institution on a journey to find the ice masses that have been lost in modern times. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the museum surfaces using invisible ink. Each discovery, a chime will sound and a reading will be conducted to honor that particular glacier.

Meanwhile, up in another location, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a open display about our alienation from the environment, as well as hosting a community dinner, made using organic, local produce. Over in Newcastle, a participant is streaming her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which local singers begin a project to use music to heal flora in a green space.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, Cornelia Parker will be working with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is hoping to fill an art space in kids’ letters and drawings that document their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Youthful expressions are powerful because they’re not as restricted as mature perspectives,” she says in her call to action video. “What children have to offer to the world is something distinctive and hopefully it will stimulate a sense of responsibility from us all. Kids are unbiased. They have fears about the future. But let’s not make it about fear – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they have a tomorrow.”

Remembrance and Reflection

A participant’s work also appeals to children. With a background in performance, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then dressing up as them – and for the event he is intending to tackle Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also staging a walking tour of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his long-term work over the recent decades. This endeavor began when he faced multiple occurrences of discrimination on a single day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the location of every incident and photograph it – the project has since spiralled to incorporate experiences experienced by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Apparently wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

Harfleet chose the bloom not just for the direct association – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The plan on Remember Nature day is to sow flowers at fresh spots and also replant flowers in places he has honored before, all the while talking to those on the itinerant journey about the events and his memories of them. “We’ve seen quite a few after my previous work,” he says sadly.

Advancing Positively

Harfleet hopes his work – and