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During 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his last major projects. Known for pioneering art that erases itself, Metzger had spent a lifetime to responding to societal issues from peace activism to plant-based living. In a brief video message, he made a plea for a worldwide initiative to honor the environment.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your participation in this global appeal for a day of action to commemorate our planet on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, encouraging makers and thinkers to stand against the steady eradication of species. “The mission is to help the public recall of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are naturally imaginative.”

The Birth of Environmental Reflection

In this way Remember Nature came into being, a day when creatives nationwide developed works to the unfolding climate catastrophe. An organizer, who cared for Metzger in his final years, notes his feeling of immediacy. “He had a profound sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “My advice was – let’s not mess around. Let’s not wait for funding or for anyone to approve this. We should proceed.”

A Decade Later

After ten years, the project hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but organizers feel its legacy 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. For this purpose she is reviving it to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Part of the key participants participating now are A Man Called Adam and Anya Gallaccio. Each has produced imagery, made video appeals, and developed pieces set to be revealed on the fourth of November next year.

Planting Hope

When speaking to Anya Gallaccio, she is out in a field in a rural area, assisting with planting apple trees that will grow to form a spiral-shaped orchard. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and somewhat instructive. She describes, the design and cultivation sessions have already involved learning about mathematics (measuring out the planting intervals), genetics (exploring the apple’s DNA), and geography (mapping the stories of how various cultivars came to the UK).

A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that produces crimson liquid

“A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that releases red juice. Every one carries histories attached. The decio apple was introduced by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that fell from a tree and struck the physicist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more actively aware of the natural world and the influence we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was encouraging 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, a participant’s project on disappearance will involve participants looking through an art institution on a quest to find the ice masses that have been disappeared in the past decade. Every ice sheet will be drawn on the museum surfaces using invisible ink. When located, a chime will sound and a performance will be conducted to commemorate that particular glacier.

At the same time, up in Barrow-in-Furness, Maddi Nicholson will be hosting a public show about our separation from nature, as well as holding a community dinner, cooked from regional food. Over in Newcastle, Uta Kögelsberger is sharing her environmental performance, in which local singers begin a project to perform for vegetation in a green space.

Youth Perspectives

Like Gallaccio, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is hoping to fill an art space in kids’ letters and drawings that capture their dreams and worries for the tomorrow. “Youthful expressions are powerful because they’re not as trammelled as mature perspectives,” she says in her call to action video. “The contributions of youth to the world is something quite unique and it may provoke a sense of responsibility from everyone. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. But this shouldn’t be about fear – it should be about positivity and our responsibility that they have a tomorrow.”

Remembrance and Reflection

A participant’s work also appeals to children. Drawing on past experience, his feathered initiative involves sketching winged creatures and then performing as birds – and for the initiative he is planning to tackle an iconic figure. He is also conducting a guided walk of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his long-term work over the past twenty years. The project started after he experienced three incidents of homophobic abuse on a particular day. In response, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the site of each occurrence and document it – the project has since expanded to include incidents shared by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

Harfleet chose the bloom not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The plan on 4 November is to sow flowers at fresh spots and also replant flowers in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the guided walk about the incidents and his memories of them. “We’ve seen quite a few after my previous work,” he says sadly.

Progressing Optimistically

He desires his work – and