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Back in 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger launched one of his last major projects. Known for creating auto-destructive art, Metzger had dedicated his life to addressing human struggles from anti-nuclear advocacy to plant-based living. In a brief video message, he made a plea for a global day of action to remember nature.

“I call upon you for your involvement in this worldwide call for a day of action to remember nature on 4 November 2015,” he declared, inviting makers and thinkers to oppose the continuing disappearance of species. “Our responsibility is to help the public recall of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into domains that are naturally imaginative.”

The Birth of Environmental Reflection

In this way the Nature Remembrance initiative was born, a day when artists across the country produced pieces to the escalating planetary emergency. One of the curators, who supported Metzger in his later life, notes his sense of urgency. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I just said – don’t delay. No need to pause for sponsorship or for anyone to green light this. Let’s just do it.”

A Decade Later

After ten years, the initiative hasn’t quite triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but supporters think its legacy can still be felt in campaigns like cultural advocacy groups and climate activism networks, as well as in how creatives consider the environmental impact of their practices. For this purpose she is restaging it to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. Among the key participants taking part currently are Cornelia Parker and other notable figures. All participants have created visual art, made video appeals, and produced installations set to be unveiled on the fourth of November next year.

Sowing Change

When speaking to Anya Gallaccio, she is working outdoors in the countryside, helping plant apple trees that will develop into a circular grove. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and somewhat instructive. She describes, the planning and planting sessions have already included learning about maths (measuring out the gaps in the orchard), genetics (discussing the hereditary traits), and geography (researching the backgrounds of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that releases red juice

“A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that releases scarlet-colored sap. Every one carries histories attached. The historical cultivar was introduced by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that fell from a tree and hit the scientist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more actively aware of the natural world and the power we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was urging them, when they go shopping, to read the label and see their names and the source. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Cultural Projects Nationwide

At the capital, Youngsook Choi’s project on disappearance will involve participants exploring an art institution on a journey to find the ice masses that have been disappeared in recent years. Each glacier will be depicted on the museum surfaces using invisible ink. Each discovery, a bell will ring and a reading will be conducted to commemorate that individual formation.

At the same time, up in a northern town, an artist will be putting on a open display about our alienation from the environment, as well as organizing a shared meal, cooked from regional food. Further north, Uta Kögelsberger is streaming her environmental performance, in which local singers undertake a task to use music to heal flora in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Youth Perspectives

Like Gallaccio, Cornelia Parker will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is hoping to cover a cultural venue in kids’ letters and drawings that document their hopes and fears for the tomorrow. “Children’s words and images are compelling because they’re not as restricted as mature perspectives,” she says in her public appeal. “The contributions of youth to the world is something quite unique and perhaps it can inspire a awareness of obligation from everyone. Children are innocent. They have concerns for tomorrow. But let’s not make it about anxiety – it should be about hope and us ensuring that they have a tomorrow.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Another artist’s work also connects with children. As a former drag queen, his feathered initiative involves drawing birds and then embodying them – and for Remember Nature day he is aiming to represent Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also conducting a walking tour of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his Pansy Project over the past twenty years. This endeavor started after he experienced multiple occurrences of prejudice on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the location of every incident and document it – the project has since grown to incorporate experiences reported by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

He picked the bloom not just for the direct association – it has long been a slur – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The intention on Remember Nature day is to sow flowers at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has honored before, all the while conversing with those on the guided walk about the events and his memories of them. “There’s been quite a few since I last planted,” he says sadly.

Advancing Positively

The artist wishes his work – and