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During 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger launched one of his last significant endeavors. Known for creating art that erases itself, Metzger had devoted his career to responding to human struggles from nuclear disarmament to vegetarianism. Through a short video message, he requested support for a global day of action to honor the environment.

“I call upon you for your participation in this worldwide call for a day of action to reflect on the environment on the fourth of November, 2015,” he declared, inviting artists and creatives to oppose the ongoing loss of flora and fauna. “Our task is to help the public recall of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so art will enter territories that are inherently creative.”

The Birth of Environmental Reflection

In this way the Nature Remembrance initiative was established, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain developed works to the ongoing environmental crisis. An organizer, who supported Metzger in his final years, recalls his feeling of immediacy. “He had a great sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “I just said – let’s not mess around. Let’s not wait for sponsorship or for anyone to authorize this. Let’s just do it.”

A Decade Later

A decade on, the project hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its influence can still be observed in campaigns like artist-led declarations and climate activism networks, as well as in how creatives consider the environmental impact of their work. This is the reason she is relaunching it to commemorate its decade milestone. Among the 18 lead artists taking part currently are A Man Called Adam and Anya Gallaccio. All participants have produced imagery, made video appeals, and produced installations set to be presented on the fourth of November next year.

Sowing Change

Interviewing one participant, she is on site in the countryside, helping plant apple trees that will grow to form a coiled garden. Working with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and somewhat instructive. She describes, the design and cultivation sessions have already included learning about mathematics (spacing the distances between trees), biology (exploring the hereditary traits), and geography (tracing the stories of how different apples were introduced to England).

Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice

“Several the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that releases crimson liquid. They all have histories attached. The ancient variety was brought over by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and struck the physicist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more actively aware of nature and the influence we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was urging them, on their next shopping trip, to read the label and see the variety and the source. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Nationwide

At the capital, Youngsook Choi’s Book of Loss will involve participants looking through an art institution on a mission to find the frozen formations that have been disappeared in the past decade. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the gallery’s windows and walls using ultraviolet markers. Whenever one is found, a bell will ring and a recitation will be performed to commemorate that specific ice mass.

Meanwhile, up in another location, a creative will be hosting a open display about our separation from nature, as well as hosting a shared meal, cooked from organic, local produce. Further north, Uta Kögelsberger is streaming her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which local singers begin a project to perform for vegetation in a local park.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, another participant will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is hoping to cover an art space in children’s artwork that express their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Youthful expressions are impactful because they’re not as inhibited as mature perspectives,” she says in her public appeal. “What children have to offer to the world is something quite unique and it may provoke a sense of responsibility from each person. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. But let’s not make it about worry – it should be about positivity and us ensuring that they have a tomorrow.”

Tributes and Thoughts

A participant’s work also resonates for children. As a former drag queen, his Birds Can Fly involves drawing birds and then performing as birds – and for the initiative he is planning to represent Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also staging a guided walk of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his long-term work over the past twenty years. The project started after he endured multiple occurrences of discrimination on a particular day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the site of each occurrence and record it – the project has since expanded to include incidents reported by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Apparently wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

The artist selected the flower 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 became associated with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The plan on 4 November is to place blooms at additional sites and also replant flowers in places he has previously memorialised, all the while discussing with those on the itinerant journey about the occurrences and his memories of them. “We’ve seen quite a few since I last planted,” he says sadly.

Progressing Optimistically

He desires his work – and