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In 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger initiated one of his final major projects. Known for introducing auto-destructive art, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting societal issues from anti-nuclear advocacy to ethical eating. Through a short video message, he requested support for a international event to honor the environment.

“This is my appeal for your engagement in this worldwide call for a day of action to reflect on the environment on November 4th, 2015,” he declared, inviting cultural workers to stand against the steady eradication of species. “The mission is to make audiences aware of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so art will enter domains that are inherently creative.”

The Creation of Environmental Reflection

In this way Remember Nature came into being, a day when artists across the country created responses to the unfolding climate catastrophe. Jo Joelson, who worked closely with Metzger in his last days, remembers his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I urged him – let’s not mess around. We shouldn’t hold back for sponsorship or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

After Ten Years

Ten years later, the project hasn’t quite triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but Joelson believes its influence can still be seen in movements like Culture Declares and environmental protests, as well as in how makers handle the environmental impact of their practices. For this purpose she is reviving it to commemorate its decade milestone. Among the 18 lead artists participating now are Yu-Chen Wang and other notable figures. They have all produced imagery, shared messages, and created artworks set to be unveiled on the fourth of November next year.

Cultivating Awareness

In conversation with the artist, she is working outdoors in Kent, helping plant apple trees that will create a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and somewhat instructive. As she explains, the preparation and sowing sessions have already incorporated learning about mathematics (spacing the planting intervals), genetics (exploring the genetic makeup), and history (researching the backgrounds of how distinct varieties were introduced to England).

Several the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that produces scarcolored sap

“A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that releases red juice. Every one carries stories behind them. The historical cultivar was imported by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that dropped off a tree and hit Isaac Newton’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the environment and the control we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was prompting them, next time they were out, to look on the bag and see their names and the source. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Artistic Responses Nationwide

Within the city, a participant’s work about extinction will involve participants searching a major gallery on a quest to find the ice masses that have been disappeared in the past decade. Each glacier will be depicted on the museum surfaces using invisible ink. When located, a bell will ring and a performance will be conducted to honor that individual formation.

Elsewhere, up in a northern town, Maddi Nicholson will be hosting a free exhibition about our alienation from the environment, as well as hosting a communal feast, prepared with sustainable ingredients. Over in Newcastle, Uta Kögelsberger is streaming her environmental performance, in which regional performers begin a project to perform for vegetation in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Young Insights

Like Gallaccio, Cornelia Parker will be working with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is planning to fill an art space in children’s artwork that express their dreams and worries for the future. “Children’s words and images are powerful because they’re not as inhibited as adults’,” she says in her recorded message. “The contributions of youth to the world is something quite unique and perhaps it can inspire a feeling of duty from us all. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But it isn’t meant to be about fear – it should be about hope and making sure that they have a tomorrow.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Paul Harfleet’s work also connects with children. With a background in performance, his avian project involves illustrating avians and then performing as birds – and for Remember Nature day he is aiming to represent a local symbol. He is also organizing a itinerant journey of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his ongoing series over the last two decades. The project began when he faced multiple occurrences of discrimination on a one occasion. In response, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the spot where it happened and document it – the project has since expanded to incorporate experiences shared by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “It seems birds consume them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

The artist selected the flower not just for the direct association – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – 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 bad quality,” he says.

The project on Remember Nature day is to place blooms at additional sites and also renew the tributes 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 after my previous work,” he says mournfully.

Progressing Optimistically

Harfleet hopes his work – and