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During 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger launched one of his last important works. Recognized for creating art that erases itself, Metzger had spent a lifetime 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 involvement in this international summons for a day of action to reflect on the environment on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, encouraging makers and thinkers to stand against the steady eradication of species. “The mission is to make audiences aware of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into domains that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Creation of Environmental Reflection

Thus Remember Nature was established, a day when artists across the country created responses to the escalating planetary emergency. Jo Joelson, who supported Metzger in his last days, remembers his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I urged him – let’s not mess around. Let’s not wait for funding or for anyone to authorize this. We should proceed.”

Ten Years On

Ten years later, the project did not sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but supporters think its influence can still be seen in campaigns like artist-led declarations and environmental protests, as well as in how makers handle the environmental impact of their work. This is the reason she is reviving it to mark its 10-year anniversary. Among the 18 lead artists involved this time are Cornelia Parker and Anya Gallaccio. They have all created visual art, shared messages, and produced installations set to be presented on the fourth of November next year.

Cultivating Awareness

Interviewing Anya Gallaccio, she is out in a field in a rural area, cultivating apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and half educational workshop. According to her, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about mathematics (measuring out the planting intervals), genetics (discussing the apple’s DNA), and geography (researching the journeys of how distinct varieties were introduced to England).

A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that produces scarcolored sap

“Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher,” she explains. “We have one apple that releases crimson liquid. Each has background narratives. The ancient variety was introduced by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that dropped off a tree and hit the scientist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more consciously engaged of the environment and the influence we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, when they go shopping, to look on the bag and see what they’re called and their origin. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Across the Country

In London, one artist’s Book of Loss will engage visitors searching an art institution on a quest to find the seven major glaciers that have been disappeared in recent years. Each glacier will be depicted on the exhibition spaces using special pens. Whenever one is found, a alert will occur and a reading will be performed to remember that individual formation.

Elsewhere, up in Barrow-in-Furness, a creative will be hosting a free exhibition about our separation from nature, as well as holding a communal feast, made using organic, local produce. In another city, an artist is broadcasting her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers embark on a mission to sing plants back to health in a local park.

Youth Perspectives

Following this approach, Cornelia Parker will be engaging schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is aiming to fill an art space in kids’ letters and drawings that document their dreams and worries for the future. “Youthful expressions are impactful because they’re not as restricted as grown-ups’,” she says in her call to action video. “Young people’s input to the world is something quite unique and perhaps it can stimulate a feeling of duty from us all. Children are innocent. They have concerns for tomorrow. But this shouldn’t be about anxiety – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they see a better world.”

Memorials and Memory

A participant’s work also resonates for children. Drawing on past experience, his Birds Can Fly involves illustrating avians and then embodying them – and for Remember Nature day he is aiming to represent a local symbol. He is also organizing a guided walk of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his long-term work over the past twenty years. The project started after he endured multiple occurrences of homophobic abuse on a single day. In response, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the location of every incident and photograph it – the project has since spiralled to include incidents experienced by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

He picked the pansy not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a slur – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The intention on Remember Nature day is to place blooms at fresh spots and also renew the tributes in places he has honored before, all the while talking to those on the itinerant journey about the events and his recollections. “I’ve recorded quite a few following earlier installations,” he says mournfully.

Progressing Optimistically

He desires his work – and