🔗 Share this article

In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger launched one of his last significant endeavors. Recognized for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had spent a lifetime to addressing global challenges from peace activism to plant-based living. Through a short video message, he made a plea for a international event to celebrate the natural world.

“I call upon you for your participation in this worldwide call for a day of action to remember nature on November 4th, 2015,” he stated, encouraging cultural workers to resist the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “The mission is to remind people of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore territories that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Creation of Environmental Reflection

In this way the Nature Remembrance initiative was established, a day when creatives nationwide created responses to the ongoing environmental crisis. An organizer, who cared for Metzger in his final years, remembers his drive for action. “There was a profound sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I just said – we must act now. We shouldn’t hold back for sponsorship or for anyone to approve this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

Ten years later, Remember Nature did not incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but organizers feel its impact can still be felt in campaigns like Culture Declares and climate activism networks, as well as in how makers handle the environmental impact of their work. This is the reason she is relaunching it to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. Part of the featured creators involved this time are Cornelia Parker and Anya Gallaccio. They have all designed posters, recorded calls to action, and produced installations set to be unveiled on the fourth of November next year.

Sowing Change

When speaking to the artist, she is out in a field in the countryside, assisting with planting apple trees that will create a coiled garden. Working with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and somewhat instructive. As she explains, the preparation and sowing sessions have already incorporated learning about mathematics (calculating the distances between trees), genetics (exploring the genetic makeup), and origins (mapping the backgrounds of how various cultivars were introduced to England).

Several the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice

“A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties,” she explains. “We have one apple that produces crimson liquid. Every one carries histories attached. The decio apple was imported by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that descended from a tree and landed on the scientist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more consciously engaged of the natural world and the influence we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, on their next shopping trip, to look on the bag and see the variety and where they were grown. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Cultural Projects Across the Country

At the capital, one artist’s Book of Loss will involve participants exploring Tate Modern on a quest to find the seven major glaciers that have been disappeared in modern times. Each glacier will be depicted on the gallery’s windows and walls using invisible ink. When located, a bell will ring and a performance will be performed to remember that particular glacier.

At the same time, up in Barrow-in-Furness, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a free exhibition about our alienation from the environment, as well as hosting a community dinner, prepared with sustainable ingredients. In another city, an artist is sharing her environmental performance, 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 working with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is hoping to decorate Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in children’s artwork that express their dreams and worries for the tomorrow. “Youthful expressions are compelling because they’re not as trammelled as adults’,” she says in her recorded message. “The contributions of youth to the world is something truly special and it may provoke a awareness of obligation from each person. Kids are unbiased. They have concerns for tomorrow. But this shouldn’t be about anxiety – it should be about optimism and us ensuring that they get a future.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Paul Harfleet’s work also appeals to children. Drawing on past experience, his avian project involves drawing birds and then embodying them – and for the initiative he is aiming to tackle 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 past twenty years. This endeavor started after he experienced several events of discrimination on a particular day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the spot where it happened and record it – the project has since grown to incorporate experiences reported by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “It seems 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 slur – but also because its origin is 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 project on 4 November is to sow flowers at new locations and also replant flowers in places he has previously memorialised, all the while discussing with those on the guided walk about the occurrences and his memories of them. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says with regret.

Moving Forward with Hope

He desires his work – and