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In 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his ultimate important works. Famed for introducing self-destructive creations, Metzger had dedicated his life to responding to societal issues from anti-nuclear advocacy to ethical eating. Via a concise video message, he issued a call for a worldwide initiative to honor the environment.

“This is my appeal for your engagement in this worldwide call for a day of action to remember nature on November 4th, 2015,” he stated, encouraging makers and thinkers to stand against the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “Our task is to remind people of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into domains that are naturally imaginative.”

The Creation of Remember Nature

Thus the Nature Remembrance initiative was established, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain developed works to the unfolding climate catastrophe. One of the curators, who cared for Metzger in his later life, remembers his sense of urgency. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “I urged him – don’t delay. We shouldn’t hold back for funding or for anyone to authorize this. We should proceed.”

A Decade Later

Ten years later, the project hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but organizers feel its influence can still be seen in campaigns like artist-led declarations and environmental protests, as well as in how artists approach the eco-friendliness of their methods. That’s why she is restaging it to celebrate its decade milestone. Part of the 18 lead artists participating now are Yu-Chen Wang and Anya Gallaccio. They have all produced imagery, shared messages, and created artworks set to be presented on the fourth of November next year.

Sowing Change

In conversation with Anya Gallaccio, she is out in a field in a rural area, helping plant apple trees that will grow to form a spiral-shaped orchard. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and somewhat instructive. As she explains, the preparation and sowing sessions have already involved learning about measurements (measuring out the gaps in the orchard), science (discussing the genetic makeup), and origins (researching the journeys of how distinct varieties came to the UK).

Several the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that produces red juice

“A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties,” she explains. “We have one apple that produces scarlet-colored sap. Every one carries histories attached. The historical cultivar was brought over by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that descended from a tree and landed on Isaac Newton’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the environment and the influence we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you find in 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!”

Creative Initiatives Nationwide

In London, a participant’s project on disappearance will involve participants exploring Tate Modern on a journey to find the frozen formations that have been vanished in modern times. All formations will be illustrated on the gallery’s windows and walls using ultraviolet markers. When located, a bell will ring and a recitation will be conducted to honor that individual formation.

Meanwhile, up in a northern town, a creative will be hosting a public show about our disconnection from the land, as well as hosting a shared meal, cooked from organic, local produce. In another city, an artist is streaming her environmental performance, in which regional performers undertake a task to use music to heal flora in a local park.

Young Insights

Similar to other artists, a featured creator will be engaging schoolchildren – on the day itself she is hoping to fill Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in kids’ letters and drawings that capture their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Youthful expressions are powerful because they’re not as trammelled as adults’,” she says in her call to action video. “The contributions of youth to the world is something distinctive and hopefully it will inspire a sense of responsibility from everyone. Children are innocent. They have fears about the future. But it isn’t meant to be about fear – it should be about positivity and us ensuring that they have a tomorrow.”

Memorials and Memory

Another artist’s work also connects with children. Drawing on past experience, his feathered initiative involves illustrating avians and then dressing up as them – and for Remember Nature day he is planning to represent Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also staging a itinerant journey of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the last two decades. The project commenced following he endured three incidents of prejudice on a single day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the spot where it happened and record it – the project has since spiralled to incorporate experiences reported by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly birds consume them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

The artist selected the flower not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The intention on 4 November is to place blooms at additional sites and also replant flowers in places he has previously memorialised, all the while conversing with those on the walking tour about the incidents and his memories of them. “There’s been quite a few since I last planted,” he says sadly.

Progressing Optimistically

Harfleet hopes his work – and