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Back in 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger launched one of his last important works. Famed for introducing self-destructive creations, Metzger had dedicated his life to confronting global challenges from anti-nuclear advocacy to plant-based living. Via a concise video message, he requested support for a international event to remember nature.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your engagement in this worldwide call for a day of action to commemorate our planet on the fourth of November, 2015,” he declared, urging cultural workers to stand against the continuing disappearance of flora and fauna. “Our responsibility is to remind people of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so art will enter domains that are inherently creative.”

The Creation of Nature Remembrance

In this way the environmental art day came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain produced pieces to the ongoing environmental crisis. One of the curators, who supported Metzger in his last days, remembers his feeling of immediacy. “There was a strong sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I urged him – let’s not mess around. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to approve this. We should proceed.”

Ten Years On

A decade on, the project did not triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but supporters think its legacy can still be seen in movements like cultural advocacy groups and environmental protests, as well as in how artists approach the eco-friendliness of their work. That’s why she is reviving it to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. Included in the key participants participating now are A Man Called Adam and prominent artists. Each has produced imagery, recorded calls to action, and developed pieces set to be presented on the fourth of November next year.

Planting Hope

When speaking to one participant, she is out in a field in a rural area, cultivating apple trees that will grow to form a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and somewhat instructive. She describes, the preparation and sowing sessions have already involved learning about mathematics (measuring out the gaps in the orchard), biology (discussing the apple’s DNA), and geography (researching the journeys of how various cultivars were introduced to England).

A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that releases scarcolored sap

“Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarlet-colored sap. They all have histories attached. The decio apple was imported by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that fell from a tree and hit the scientist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the natural world and the influence we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, next time they were out, to look on the bag and see their names and where they were grown. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Artistic Responses Throughout Britain

In London, a participant’s project on disappearance will engage visitors searching an art institution on a quest to find the ice masses that have been lost in the past decade. All formations will be depicted on the exhibition spaces using invisible ink. When located, a alert will occur and a recitation will be held to remember that particular glacier.

Elsewhere, up in a northern town, an artist will be hosting a open display about our alienation from the environment, as well as holding a shared meal, cooked from sustainable ingredients. Further north, an artist is broadcasting her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers begin a project to sing plants back to health in a green space.

Youth Perspectives

Following this approach, Cornelia Parker will be working with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is aiming to decorate an art space in kids’ letters and drawings that document their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Kids’ art are impactful 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 distinctive and it may provoke a sense of responsibility from each person. Youth is pure. They have anxieties about what’s next. But let’s not make it about anxiety – it should be about positivity and making sure that they get a future.”

Memorials and Memory

A participant’s work also resonates for children. With a background in performance, his Birds Can Fly involves drawing birds and then performing as birds – and for Remember Nature day he is intending to tackle a local symbol. He is also staging a guided walk of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his Pansy Project over the past twenty years. The project began when he faced three incidents of homophobic abuse on a particular day. In response, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since grown to include incidents reported by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “It seems wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a short-lived 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 etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The intention on 4 November is to sow flowers at fresh spots and also replant flowers in places he has marked earlier, all the while discussing with those on the walking tour about the events and his memories of them. “We’ve seen quite a few after my previous work,” he says mournfully.

Moving Forward with Hope

Harfleet hopes his work – and