🔗 Share this article

In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his ultimate major projects. Recognized for pioneering auto-destructive art, Metzger had dedicated his life to confronting global challenges from nuclear disarmament to plant-based living. In a brief video message, he issued a call for a global day of action to celebrate the natural world.

“This is my appeal for your participation in this worldwide call for a day of action to remember nature on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, inviting makers and thinkers to resist the steady eradication of species. “Our task is to help the public recall of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so art will enter realms that are naturally imaginative.”

The Creation of Remember Nature

And so Remember Nature came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain developed works to the unfolding climate catastrophe. One of the curators, who supported Metzger in his final years, remembers his drive for action. “There was a strong sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “I just said – don’t delay. No need to pause for financial support or for anyone to green light this. Take action immediately.”

A Decade Later

After ten years, the initiative may not have incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but organizers feel its influence can still be felt in initiatives like cultural advocacy groups and climate activism networks, as well as in how makers handle the eco-friendliness of their work. This is the reason she is restaging it to commemorate its decade milestone. Part of the featured creators participating now are Cornelia Parker and Anya Gallaccio. All participants have produced imagery, made video appeals, and developed pieces set to be revealed on the fourth of November next year.

Sowing Change

In conversation with Anya Gallaccio, she is working outdoors in a rural area, helping plant apple trees that will create a coiled garden. Working with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and half educational workshop. According to her, the planning and planting sessions have already included learning about measurements (spacing the planting intervals), genetics (studying the apple’s DNA), and geography (tracing the stories of how different apples 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 red juice

“A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that produces crimson liquid. Every one carries histories attached. The ancient variety was introduced by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that fell from a tree and landed on Isaac Newton’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more actively aware of nature and the influence we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, next time they were out, to check the packaging and see their names and where they were grown. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Cultural Projects Across the Country

At the capital, a participant’s Book of Loss will include attendees exploring an art institution on a mission to find the ice masses that have been vanished in the past decade. All formations will be illustrated on the exhibition spaces using special pens. Each discovery, a alert will occur and a reading will be performed to remember that individual formation.

Meanwhile, up in another location, an artist will be presenting a public show about our separation from nature, as well as holding a shared meal, made using regional food. In another city, an artist is sharing her musical project, in which regional performers embark on a mission to sing plants back to health in a local park.

Youth Perspectives

Following this approach, a featured creator will be engaging schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is hoping to cover an art space in youth creations that capture their hopes and fears for the future. “Children’s words and images are powerful because they’re not as inhibited as mature perspectives,” she says in her call to action video. “What children have to offer to the world is something quite unique and hopefully it will stimulate a sense of responsibility from us all. Children are innocent. They have concerns for tomorrow. But this shouldn’t be about worry – it should be about positivity and making sure that they see a better world.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Paul Harfleet’s work also resonates for children. Drawing on past experience, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then performing as birds – and for Remember Nature day he is planning to represent an iconic figure. He is also organizing a guided walk of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his ongoing series over the recent decades. That ongoing series commenced following he faced multiple occurrences of prejudice on a particular day. In response, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the spot where it happened and document it – the project has since spiralled to incorporate experiences shared by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

The artist selected the bloom not just for the direct association – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – 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 plan on Remember Nature day is to sow flowers at fresh spots and also refresh the memorials in places he has previously memorialised, all the while conversing with those on the itinerant journey about the events and his personal experiences. “I’ve recorded quite a few following earlier installations,” he says sadly.

Advancing Positively

The artist wishes his work – and