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During 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his ultimate major projects. Recognized for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had devoted his career to responding to societal issues from anti-nuclear advocacy to plant-based living. In a brief video message, he issued a call for a worldwide initiative to celebrate the natural world.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your involvement in this international summons for a day of action to remember nature on the fourth of November, 2015,” he stated, inviting artists and creatives to oppose the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “Our task is to help the public recall of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are naturally imaginative.”

The Creation of Environmental Reflection

And so the Nature Remembrance initiative came into being, a day when creatives nationwide created responses to the unfolding climate catastrophe. Jo Joelson, who worked closely with Metzger in his later life, recalls his drive for action. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I just said – we must act now. We shouldn’t hold back for financial support or for anyone to green light this. Let’s just do it.”

Ten Years On

After ten years, Remember Nature hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but organizers feel its legacy can still be observed in initiatives like Culture Declares and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how makers handle the sustainability of their methods. For this purpose she is reviving it to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. Part of the 18 lead artists taking part currently are Cornelia Parker and other notable figures. They have all designed posters, recorded calls to action, and produced installations set to be unveiled on the fourth of November next year.

Cultivating Awareness

In conversation with Anya Gallaccio, she is out in a field in a rural area, cultivating apple trees that will develop into a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and half educational workshop. According to her, the planning and planting sessions have already incorporated learning about measurements (spacing the planting intervals), science (studying the genetic makeup), and history (mapping the stories of how various cultivars came to the UK).

Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid

“Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill,” she explains. “We have one apple that produces red juice. They all have stories behind them. The ancient variety was brought over by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and landed on Isaac Newton’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the natural world and the power we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was urging them, when they go shopping, to look on the bag and see what they’re called and their origin. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Artistic Responses Nationwide

At the capital, one artist’s work about extinction will involve participants exploring an art institution on a mission to find the ice masses that have been lost in the past decade. All formations will be illustrated on the gallery’s windows and walls using ultraviolet markers. When located, a alert will occur and a recitation will be held to honor that specific ice mass.

Elsewhere, up in another location, a creative will be hosting a open display about our alienation from the environment, as well as organizing a community dinner, made using regional food. In another city, Uta Kögelsberger is sharing her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers undertake a task to perform for vegetation in a green space.

Children’s Voices

Following this approach, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is aiming to cover Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in kids’ letters and drawings that express their aspirations and concerns for the years ahead. “Kids’ art are powerful because they’re not as inhibited as mature perspectives,” she says in her call to action video. “The contributions of youth to the world is something quite unique and perhaps it can provoke a sense of responsibility from each person. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But let’s not make it about worry – it should be about optimism and us ensuring that they get a future.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Another artist’s work also appeals to children. Drawing on past experience, his avian project involves illustrating avians and then embodying them – and for Remember Nature day he is intending to tackle Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also staging a walking tour of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his long-term work over the last two decades. This endeavor started after he faced several events of discrimination on a single day. In response, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the spot where it happened and record it – the project has since expanded to include incidents reported by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “It seems wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

He picked 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 thoughtful, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The intention on 4 November is to plant pansies at fresh spots and also renew the tributes in places he has honored before, all the while conversing with those on the walking tour about the occurrences and his memories of them. “We’ve seen quite a few after my previous work,” he says mournfully.

Progressing Optimistically

He desires his work – and