🔗 Share this article

In 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger initiated one of his last important works. Famed for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had spent a lifetime to confronting societal issues from nuclear disarmament to vegetarianism. In a brief video message, he issued a call for a international event to remember nature.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your engagement in this international summons for a day of action to remember nature on November 4th, 2015,” he declared, urging makers and thinkers to oppose the ongoing loss of living beings. “The mission is to make audiences aware of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into territories that are naturally imaginative.”

The Inception of Environmental Reflection

In this way the environmental art day was established, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain produced pieces to the ongoing environmental crisis. 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 close of his days,” she says. “I just said – let’s not mess around. We shouldn’t hold back for financial support or for anyone to authorize this. Let’s just do it.”

After Ten Years

A decade on, the initiative may not have sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but Joelson believes its impact can still be seen in movements like Culture Declares and environmental protests, as well as in how artists approach the environmental impact of their practices. For this purpose she is reviving it to mark its decade milestone. Part of the featured creators taking part currently are Cornelia Parker and prominent artists. They have all created visual art, recorded calls to action, and produced installations set to be unveiled on November 4, 2025.

Planting Hope

In conversation with one participant, she is working outdoors in a rural area, helping plant apple trees that will develop into a coiled garden. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and half educational workshop. As she explains, the preparation and sowing sessions have already involved learning about measurements (measuring out the gaps in the orchard), genetics (discussing the apple’s DNA), and history (researching the backgrounds of how distinct varieties were introduced to England).

Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that produces crimson liquid

“Several 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 scarlet-colored sap. Each has histories attached. The decio apple was imported by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that fell from a tree and hit the physicist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more consciously engaged of the environment and the influence we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was prompting them, next time they were out, to look on the bag and see what they’re called and their origin. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Nationwide

In London, Youngsook Choi’s project on disappearance will engage visitors exploring an art institution on a quest to find the frozen formations that have been disappeared in recent years. Each glacier will be illustrated on the gallery’s windows and walls using ultraviolet markers. When located, a chime will sound and a recitation 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 disconnection from the land, as well as hosting a shared meal, made using organic, local produce. In another city, an artist is sharing her musical project, in which local singers embark on a mission to sing plants back to health in a green space.

Youth Perspectives

Following this approach, another participant will be engaging schoolchildren – on the actual event she is planning to fill Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in youth creations that express their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Children’s words and images are impactful because they’re not as inhibited as grown-ups’,” she says in her public appeal. “The contributions of youth to the world is something quite unique and it may stimulate a feeling of duty from each person. Youth is pure. They have fears about the future. But let’s not make it about fear – it should be about positivity and our responsibility that they see a better world.”

Tributes and Thoughts

A participant’s work also appeals to children. As a former drag queen, his Birds Can Fly involves drawing birds and then performing as birds – and for Remember Nature day he is planning to tackle an iconic figure. He is also conducting a guided walk of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his ongoing series over the past twenty years. That ongoing series began when he endured several events of prejudice on a particular day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the spot where it happened and record it – the project has since spiralled to cover events experienced by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly birds consume them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

He picked the pansy not just for the clear connection – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The project on the event day is to sow flowers at additional sites and also replant flowers in places he has previously memorialised, all the while discussing with those on the guided walk about the events and his recollections. “We’ve seen quite a few since I last planted,” he says sadly.

Moving Forward with Hope

The artist wishes his work – and