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During 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his final significant endeavors. Recognized for creating auto-destructive art, Metzger had devoted his career to addressing human struggles from peace activism to vegetarianism. In a brief video message, he made a plea for a worldwide initiative to honor the environment.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your engagement in this global appeal for a day of action to remember nature on November 4th, 2015,” he declared, urging makers and thinkers to resist the continuing disappearance of species. “The mission is to make audiences aware of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore territories that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Inception of Remember Nature

Thus the Nature Remembrance initiative was born, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain created responses to the unfolding climate catastrophe. One of the curators, who worked closely with Metzger in his final years, remembers his feeling of immediacy. “He had a profound sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “My advice was – don’t delay. Let’s not wait for sponsorship or for anyone to authorize this. We should proceed.”

A Decade Later

After ten years, the initiative hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but organizers feel its impact can still be felt in movements like Culture Declares and environmental protests, as well as in how artists approach the environmental impact of their work. That’s why she is reviving it to commemorate its ten-year mark. Among the featured creators participating now are Cornelia Parker and prominent artists. All participants have designed posters, shared messages, and created artworks set to be unveiled on the fourth of November next year.

Sowing Change

When speaking to Anya Gallaccio, she is working outdoors in a rural area, helping plant apple trees that will grow to form a spiral-shaped orchard. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and part learning experience. She describes, the design and cultivation sessions have already included learning about measurements (spacing the gaps in the orchard), science (studying the hereditary traits), and geography (tracing the stories of how different apples came to the UK).

Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that releases scarcolored sap

“A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that produces scarlet-colored sap. Every one carries stories behind them. The historical cultivar was introduced by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that dropped off a tree and hit Isaac Newton’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the environment and the control we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was urging them, next time they were out, to look on the bag and see the variety and where they were grown. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Nationwide

At the capital, one artist’s Book of Loss will engage visitors exploring an art institution on a mission to find the seven major glaciers that have been vanished in the past decade. Every ice sheet will be drawn on the gallery’s windows and walls using special pens. Each discovery, a bell will ring and a reading will be performed to remember that individual formation.

At the same time, up in a northern town, an artist will be presenting a public show about our separation from nature, as well as hosting a communal feast, prepared with organic, local produce. Over in Newcastle, an artist is sharing her environmental performance, in which regional performers embark on a mission to sing plants back to health in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Children’s Voices

Similar to other artists, another participant will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is hoping to decorate a cultural venue in youth creations that express their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Kids’ art are impactful because they’re not as inhibited as mature perspectives,” she says in her public appeal. “The contributions of youth to the world is something quite unique and it may provoke a feeling of duty from everyone. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. But it isn’t meant to be about worry – it should be about optimism and making sure that they see a better world.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Another artist’s work also appeals to children. As a former drag queen, his Birds Can Fly involves illustrating avians and then embodying them – and for Remember Nature day he is intending to represent Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also organizing a walking tour of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his ongoing series over the recent decades. This endeavor commenced following he endured three incidents of discrimination on a single day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the location of every incident and document it – the project has since grown to incorporate experiences shared by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Apparently pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

Harfleet chose the flower not just for the clear connection – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its origin is 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 plant pansies at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the guided walk about the incidents and his personal experiences. “We’ve seen quite a few after my previous work,” he says sadly.

Progressing Optimistically

He desires his work – and