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In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his last significant endeavors. Known for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had devoted his career to responding to societal issues from anti-nuclear advocacy to ethical eating. Via a concise video message, he requested support for a worldwide initiative to remember nature.

“I call upon you for your involvement in this global appeal for a day of action to remember nature on 4 November 2015,” he declared, inviting artists and creatives to resist the ongoing loss of flora and fauna. “Our responsibility is to make audiences aware of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into territories that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Birth of Environmental Reflection

And so the environmental art day was established, a day when creatives nationwide produced pieces to the unfolding climate catastrophe. An organizer, who worked closely with Metzger in his last days, remembers his drive for action. “He had a strong sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – don’t delay. No need to pause for financial support or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

After Ten Years

A decade on, the project may not have incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but organizers feel its impact can still be felt in initiatives like Culture Declares and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how creatives consider the environmental impact of their methods. That’s why she is relaunching it to commemorate its ten-year mark. Part of the key participants taking part currently are A Man Called Adam and other notable figures. All participants have designed posters, recorded calls to action, and produced installations set to be presented on the fourth of November next year.

Sowing Change

In conversation with one participant, she is out in a field in Kent, cultivating apple trees that will develop into a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and half educational workshop. She describes, the planning and planting sessions have already involved learning about measurements (spacing the gaps in the orchard), genetics (discussing the hereditary traits), and origins (tracing the stories of how distinct varieties came to the UK).

Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that produces scarcolored sap

“Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher,” she explains. “We have one apple that produces red juice. Every one carries stories behind them. The historical cultivar was introduced by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that descended from a tree and landed on Isaac Newton’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted 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 find in a supermarket, so I was urging them, on their next shopping trip, to check the packaging and see what they’re called and where they were grown. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Nationwide

Within the city, one artist’s project on disappearance will include attendees exploring an art institution on a quest to find the frozen formations that have been lost in modern times. Every ice sheet will be illustrated on the gallery’s windows and walls using invisible ink. When located, a bell will ring and a recitation will be held to commemorate that specific ice mass.

Elsewhere, up in Barrow-in-Furness, a creative will be presenting a public show about our separation from nature, as well as organizing a communal feast, made using regional food. In another city, an artist is sharing her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers begin a project to perform for vegetation in a local park.

Young Insights

Following this approach, another participant will be working with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is planning to cover an art space in children’s artwork that document their dreams and worries for the future. “Kids’ art are powerful because they’re not as restricted as mature perspectives,” she says in her recorded message. “What children have to offer to the world is something quite unique and it may provoke a awareness of obligation from us all. Children are innocent. They have fears about the future. But this shouldn’t be about worry – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they get a future.”

Remembrance and Reflection

A participant’s work also appeals to children. As a former drag queen, his avian project involves illustrating avians and then performing as birds – and for Remember Nature day he is intending to address Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also conducting a itinerant journey of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his long-term work over the last two decades. That ongoing series started after he experienced multiple occurrences of homophobic abuse on a single day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since spiralled to cover events reported by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Apparently birds consume them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

He picked the bloom not just for the clear connection – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The project on the event day is to place blooms at fresh spots and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the guided walk about the events and his memories of them. “We’ve seen quite a few following earlier installations,” he says mournfully.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and