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In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his ultimate major projects. Known for introducing auto-destructive art, Metzger had devoted his career to responding to human struggles from peace activism to ethical eating. In a brief video message, he issued a call for a global day of action to remember nature.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your engagement in this international summons for a day of action to reflect on the environment on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, inviting cultural workers to stand against the continuing disappearance of living beings. “The mission is to make audiences aware of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore territories that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Creation of Environmental Reflection

In this way the environmental art day was born, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain produced pieces to the escalating planetary emergency. An organizer, who supported Metzger in his final years, remembers his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a strong sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I urged him – don’t delay. We shouldn’t hold back for sponsorship or for anyone to authorize this. Let’s just do it.”

Ten Years On

Ten years later, Remember Nature hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but organizers feel its legacy can still be seen in movements like cultural advocacy groups and climate activism networks, as well as in how makers handle the eco-friendliness of their methods. That’s why she is reviving it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Among the featured creators involved this time are Yu-Chen Wang and prominent artists. All participants have created visual art, made video appeals, and developed pieces set to be unveiled on the fourth of November next year.

Planting Hope

When speaking to the artist, she is on site in Kent, cultivating apple trees that will develop into a circular grove. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and half educational workshop. She describes, the preparation and sowing sessions have already included learning about mathematics (measuring out the gaps in the orchard), genetics (studying the genetic makeup), and geography (tracing the stories of how different apples were introduced to England).

A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarcolored sap

“Several the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice. Every one carries background narratives. The ancient variety was introduced by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and landed on Isaac Newton’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more consciously engaged of the natural world and the control we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was urging them, on their next shopping trip, to check the packaging and see their names and where they were grown. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Throughout Britain

In London, one artist’s Book of Loss will include attendees exploring an art institution on a mission to find the frozen formations that have been lost in recent years. Each glacier will be drawn on the gallery’s windows and walls using invisible ink. Whenever one is found, a chime will sound and a reading will be held to commemorate that particular glacier.

At the same time, up in another location, an artist will be hosting a open display about our alienation from the environment, as well as hosting a communal feast, prepared with regional food. In another city, Uta Kögelsberger is streaming her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers embark on a mission to perform for vegetation in a local park.

Young Insights

Similar to other artists, another participant will be working with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is aiming to decorate Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in kids’ letters and drawings that express their dreams and worries for the years ahead. “Kids’ art are powerful because they’re not as restricted as adults’,” she says in her public appeal. “Young people’s input to the world is something truly special and it may provoke a sense of responsibility from everyone. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. But this shouldn’t be about anxiety – it should be about optimism and us ensuring that they have a tomorrow.”

Memorials and Memory

Paul Harfleet’s work also resonates for children. As a former drag queen, his feathered initiative involves illustrating avians and then performing as birds – and for the event he is aiming to tackle an iconic figure. He is also conducting a itinerant journey of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his Pansy Project over the recent decades. That ongoing series started after he endured three incidents of discrimination on a particular day. In response, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the site of each occurrence and document it – the project has since spiralled to incorporate experiences experienced by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “It seems pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

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

The intention on Remember Nature day is to plant pansies at additional sites and also refresh the memorials in places he has previously memorialised, all the while talking to those on the itinerant journey about the incidents and his recollections. “We’ve seen quite a few following earlier installations,” he says mournfully.

Progressing Optimistically

Harfleet hopes his work – and