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During 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his last important works. Recognized for creating art that erases itself, Metzger had spent a lifetime to addressing global challenges from anti-nuclear advocacy to vegetarianism. In a brief video message, he made a plea for a global day of action to remember nature.

“This is my appeal for your engagement in this global appeal for a day of action to commemorate our planet on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, inviting artists and creatives to resist the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “Our task is to remind people of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are inherently creative.”

The Creation of Remember Nature

Thus the environmental art day was established, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain produced pieces to the escalating planetary emergency. Jo Joelson, who supported Metzger in his later life, recalls his feeling of immediacy. “He had a profound sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – don’t delay. Let’s not wait for sponsorship or for anyone to green light this. We should proceed.”

A Decade Later

After ten years, the initiative did not incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but Joelson believes its legacy can still be observed in campaigns like Culture Declares and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how creatives consider the environmental impact of their practices. This is the reason she is restaging it to mark its 10-year anniversary. Included in the key participants involved this time are A Man Called Adam and prominent artists. 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

In conversation with the artist, she is working outdoors in a rural area, cultivating apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Working with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and part learning experience. She describes, the preparation and sowing sessions have already included learning about mathematics (calculating the planting intervals), genetics (studying the genetic makeup), and origins (mapping the stories of how distinct varieties came to the UK).

Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that releases scarcolored sap

“A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties,” she explains. “We have one apple that produces crimson liquid. Every one carries background narratives. The ancient variety was introduced by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that dropped off a tree and hit the scientist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted 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 get at a supermarket, so I was prompting them, on their next shopping trip, to check the packaging and see their names and the source. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Artistic Responses Throughout Britain

In London, one artist’s project on disappearance will include attendees exploring a major gallery on a mission to find the frozen formations that have been disappeared in recent years. Each glacier will be illustrated on the museum surfaces using special pens. When located, a alert will occur and a performance will be held to remember that specific ice mass.

At the same time, up in a northern town, a creative will be hosting a free exhibition about our separation from nature, as well as holding a communal feast, made using sustainable ingredients. In another city, an artist is broadcasting her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which local singers begin a project to perform for vegetation in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Children’s Voices

Following this approach, a featured creator will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is planning to cover a cultural venue in youth creations that capture their aspirations and concerns for the years ahead. “Kids’ art are impactful because they’re not as trammelled as grown-ups’,” she says in her recorded message. “Young people’s input to the world is something quite unique and hopefully it will stimulate a awareness of obligation from us all. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. But this shouldn’t be about worry – 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 drawing birds and then dressing up as them – and for Remember Nature day he is intending to address an iconic figure. He is also organizing a guided walk of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his ongoing series over the past twenty years. That ongoing series began when he faced three incidents of prejudice on a particular day. In response, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the spot where it happened and record it – the project has since expanded to include incidents shared by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

The artist selected the bloom 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 was linked to a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The intention on 4 November is to place blooms at additional sites and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while discussing with those on the guided walk about the occurrences and his recollections. “There’s been quite a few since I last planted,” he says sadly.

Progressing Optimistically

He desires his work – and