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Back in 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his ultimate major projects. Known for creating art that erases itself, Metzger had devoted his career to addressing societal issues from anti-nuclear advocacy to plant-based living. Via a concise video message, he made a plea for a international event to remember nature.

“This is my appeal for your engagement in this global appeal for a day of action to remember nature on 4 November 2015,” he announced, inviting artists and creatives to resist the continuing disappearance of living beings. “Our task is to remind people of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so art will enter territories that are naturally imaginative.”

The Creation of Environmental Reflection

And so Remember Nature was born, a day when artists across the country produced pieces to the unfolding climate catastrophe. Jo Joelson, who cared for Metzger in his final years, notes his feeling of immediacy. “There was a profound sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – don’t delay. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

After Ten Years

A decade on, Remember Nature hasn’t quite triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but organizers feel its influence can still be observed in movements like cultural advocacy groups and environmental protests, as well as in how creatives consider the environmental impact of their methods. This is the reason she is restaging it to commemorate its ten-year mark. Among the key participants participating now are Yu-Chen Wang and Anya Gallaccio. They have all produced imagery, shared messages, and created artworks set to be unveiled on the fourth of November next year.

Sowing Change

Interviewing one participant, she is on site in the countryside, cultivating apple trees that will grow to form a coiled garden. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and somewhat instructive. According to her, the planning and planting sessions have already included learning about mathematics (spacing the gaps in the orchard), genetics (exploring the apple’s DNA), and origins (mapping the stories of how distinct varieties came to the UK).

Several the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarcolored sap

“Several the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill,” she explains. “We have one apple that produces scarlet-colored sap. Each has histories attached. The decio apple was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and hit the physicist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the natural world and the influence we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, when they go shopping, to check the packaging and see what they’re called and where they were grown. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Across the Country

In London, Youngsook Choi’s work about extinction will involve participants exploring an art institution on a quest to find the frozen formations that have been lost in modern times. Each glacier will be illustrated on the gallery’s windows and walls using ultraviolet markers. Each discovery, a bell will ring and a reading will be conducted to remember that individual formation.

Meanwhile, up in a northern town, an artist will be presenting a public show about our alienation from the environment, as well as hosting a communal feast, made using regional food. In another city, an artist is streaming her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers embark on a mission to use music to heal flora in a green space.

Youth Perspectives

Like Gallaccio, another participant will be engaging schoolchildren – on the day itself she is planning to fill an art space in kids’ letters and drawings that capture their dreams and worries for the years ahead. “Kids’ art are powerful because they’re not as restricted as grown-ups’,” she says in her recorded message. “What children have to offer to the world is something truly special and perhaps it can stimulate a sense of responsibility from everyone. Children are innocent. They have concerns for tomorrow. But this shouldn’t be about worry – it should be about optimism and making sure that they see a better world.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Another artist’s work also appeals to children. As a former drag queen, his Birds Can Fly involves illustrating avians and then dressing up as them – and for the event he is planning to tackle an iconic figure. He is also staging a walking tour of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his ongoing series over the last two decades. This endeavor began when he endured multiple occurrences of prejudice on a particular day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the location of every incident and document it – the project has since spiralled to incorporate experiences reported by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “It seems pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

Harfleet chose the bloom not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a slur – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The plan on the event day is to place blooms at additional sites and also replant flowers in places he has honored before, all the while talking to those on the guided walk about the events 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