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In 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his final significant endeavors. Known for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had dedicated his life to confronting societal issues from nuclear disarmament to plant-based living. Through a short video message, he issued a call for a worldwide initiative to celebrate the natural world.

“I call upon you for your engagement in this worldwide call for a day of action to reflect on the environment on the fourth of November, 2015,” he announced, encouraging makers and thinkers to oppose the ongoing loss of species. “Our task is to remind people of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore territories that are naturally imaginative.”

The Birth of Environmental Reflection

In this way Remember Nature came into being, a day when artists across the country developed works to the unfolding climate catastrophe. One of the curators, who supported Metzger in his final years, remembers his sense of urgency. “There was a great sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – let’s not mess around. We shouldn’t hold back for financial support or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

Ten Years On

After ten years, the project did not triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but Joelson believes its impact can still be felt in movements like Culture Declares and climate activism networks, as well as in how makers handle the sustainability of their work. This is the reason she is reviving it to celebrate its decade milestone. Part of the 18 lead artists taking part currently are A Man Called Adam and prominent artists. All participants have produced imagery, recorded calls to action, and developed pieces set to be presented on the fourth of November next year.

Planting Hope

When speaking to the artist, she is out in a field in a rural area, assisting with planting apple trees that will develop into a coiled garden. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and somewhat instructive. As she explains, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about maths (spacing the gaps in the orchard), biology (studying the hereditary traits), and history (tracing the stories of how different apples arrived in Britain).

Several the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid

“Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties,” she explains. “We have one apple that produces scarlet-colored sap. Each has stories behind them. The ancient variety was brought over by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that fell from a tree and struck Isaac Newton’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more actively aware of the environment and the control we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, on their next shopping trip, to check the packaging and see the variety and where they were grown. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Throughout Britain

Within the city, Youngsook Choi’s project on disappearance will include attendees looking through a major gallery on a journey to find the seven major glaciers that have been vanished in the past decade. Each glacier will be depicted on the museum surfaces using special pens. Whenever one is found, a bell will ring and a reading will be performed to commemorate that specific ice mass.

At the same time, up in a northern town, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a free exhibition about our separation from nature, as well as hosting a shared meal, cooked from regional food. Further north, an artist is sharing her musical project, in which community vocalists embark on a mission to perform for vegetation in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Children’s Voices

Similar to other artists, Cornelia Parker will be working with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is aiming to cover an art space in youth creations that capture their aspirations and concerns for the future. “Kids’ art are powerful because they’re not as trammelled as mature perspectives,” she says in her call to action video. “Young people’s input to the world is something truly special and it may inspire a feeling of duty from us all. Children are innocent. They have anxieties about what’s next. But it isn’t meant to be about anxiety – it should be about hope and making sure that they see a better world.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Another artist’s work also connects with 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 represent a local symbol. He is also staging a walking tour of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the past twenty years. This endeavor began when he faced multiple occurrences of discrimination on a one occasion. In response, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the site of each occurrence and photograph it – the project has since expanded to cover events experienced by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

He picked the bloom not just for the clear connection – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The plan on the event day is to sow flowers at additional sites and also replant flowers in places he has honored before, all the while talking to those on the walking tour about the incidents and his personal experiences. “I’ve recorded quite a few since I last planted,” he says sadly.

Advancing Positively

The artist wishes his work – and