🔗 Share this article

In 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger initiated one of his last major projects. Famed for introducing art that erases itself, Metzger had dedicated his life to confronting societal issues from peace activism to ethical eating. Via a concise video message, he requested support for a international event to remember nature.

“This is my appeal for your involvement in this worldwide call for a day of action to reflect on the environment on 4 November 2015,” he stated, encouraging cultural workers to resist the ongoing loss 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 territories that are naturally imaginative.”

The Inception of Remember Nature

Thus Remember Nature was born, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain developed works to the unfolding climate catastrophe. Jo Joelson, who worked closely with Metzger in his last days, notes his sense of urgency. “He had a strong sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “My advice was – we must act now. Let’s not wait for funding or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

A Decade Later

A decade on, the initiative hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but Joelson believes its influence can still be seen in campaigns like cultural advocacy groups and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how creatives consider the eco-friendliness of their methods. For this purpose she is restaging it to mark its ten-year mark. Included in the key participants participating now are Yu-Chen Wang and other notable figures. Each has produced imagery, made video appeals, and produced installations set to be unveiled on the fourth of November next year.

Sowing Change

When speaking to Anya Gallaccio, she is working outdoors in the countryside, assisting with planting apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Working with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and half educational workshop. She describes, the planning and planting sessions have already incorporated learning about measurements (measuring out the planting intervals), biology (studying the genetic makeup), and history (researching the journeys of how distinct varieties were introduced to England).

A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice

“Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that releases scarlet-colored sap. They all have stories behind them. The ancient variety was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and hit Isaac Newton’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more thoughtfully connected of nature and the influence we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, when they go shopping, to check the packaging and see what they’re called and the source. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Artistic Responses Across the Country

Within the city, one artist’s work about extinction will engage visitors looking through a major gallery on a quest to find the frozen formations that have been lost in the past decade. Each glacier will be illustrated on the museum surfaces using invisible ink. Whenever one is found, a chime will sound and a reading will be performed to remember that particular glacier.

Elsewhere, up in another location, an artist will be hosting a public show about our alienation from the environment, as well as organizing a community dinner, made using regional food. Over in Newcastle, Uta Kögelsberger is streaming her environmental performance, in which local singers undertake a task to sing plants back to health in a local park.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is planning to fill Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in kids’ letters and drawings that express their dreams and worries for the years ahead. “Youthful expressions are impactful 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 truly special and it may inspire a awareness of obligation from everyone. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But let’s not make it about fear – it should be about positivity and making sure that they see a better world.”

Memorials and Memory

A participant’s work also connects with children. With a background in performance, his feathered initiative involves sketching winged creatures and then dressing up as them – and for the event he is aiming to address an iconic figure. He is also conducting a itinerant journey of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the last two decades. This endeavor started after he experienced several events of discrimination on a one occasion. To counter this, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the site of each occurrence and record it – the project has since expanded to incorporate experiences reported by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Apparently wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

Harfleet chose the pansy not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a slur – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The intention on the event day is to place blooms at fresh spots and also replant flowers in places he has honored before, all the while discussing with those on the itinerant journey about the events and his recollections. “We’ve seen quite a few since I last planted,” he says with regret.

Moving Forward with Hope

He desires his work – and