🔗 Share this article

During 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his last major projects. Known for creating auto-destructive art, Metzger had spent a lifetime to responding to societal issues from peace activism to ethical eating. 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 global appeal for a day of action to remember nature on the fourth of November, 2015,” he announced, inviting cultural workers to stand against the steady eradication of living beings. “The mission is to help the public recall of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so art will enter realms that are inherently creative.”

The Birth of Remember Nature

Thus the Nature Remembrance initiative was born, a day when artists across the country produced pieces to the escalating planetary emergency. One of the curators, who cared for Metzger in his last days, notes his sense of urgency. “I sensed a strong sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – don’t delay. We shouldn’t hold back for sponsorship or for anyone to approve this. Take action immediately.”

A Decade Later

A decade on, the initiative hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but organizers feel its legacy can still be felt in initiatives like artist-led declarations and climate activism networks, as well as in how creatives consider the environmental impact of their practices. This is the reason she is restaging it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Included in the key participants involved this time are Yu-Chen Wang and prominent artists. All participants have produced imagery, shared messages, and created artworks set to be unveiled on November 4, 2025.

Planting Hope

Interviewing the artist, she is on site in Kent, cultivating apple trees that will develop into a spiral-shaped orchard. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and part learning experience. According to her, the design and cultivation sessions have already included learning about mathematics (spacing the gaps in the orchard), biology (exploring the genetic makeup), and history (mapping the backgrounds of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that produces red juice

“A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the Duck’s Bill,” she explains. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice. Every one carries stories behind them. The ancient variety was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and hit Isaac Newton’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more consciously engaged of nature and the power we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, next time they were out, to look on the bag and see their names and their origin. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Artistic Responses Across the Country

In London, a participant’s Book of Loss will engage visitors searching an art institution on a journey to find the frozen formations that have been lost in modern times. Every ice sheet will be drawn on the gallery’s windows and walls using special pens. When located, a bell will ring and a reading will be held to honor that specific ice mass.

Elsewhere, up in a northern town, a creative will be putting on a public show about our alienation from the environment, as well as organizing a community dinner, prepared with sustainable ingredients. Over in Newcastle, an artist is broadcasting her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers begin a project to use music to heal flora in a green space.

Children’s Voices

Following this approach, Cornelia Parker will be engaging schoolchildren – on the actual event she is planning to cover an art space in children’s artwork that express their aspirations and concerns for the tomorrow. “Children’s words and images are impactful because they’re not as restricted as mature perspectives,” she says in her recorded message. “What children have to offer to the world is something distinctive and hopefully it will provoke a feeling of duty from each person. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. But it isn’t meant to be about fear – it should be about optimism and our responsibility that they get a future.”

Memorials and Memory

A participant’s work also connects with children. As a former drag queen, his feathered initiative involves illustrating avians and then performing as birds – and for the event he is aiming to address an iconic figure. He is also conducting a guided walk of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his ongoing series over the recent decades. The project commenced following he faced several events of homophobic abuse on a one occasion. To counter this, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since grown to include incidents experienced by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Apparently birds consume them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

He picked the pansy not just for the direct association – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The plan on the event day is to plant pansies at additional sites and also refresh the memorials in places he has honored before, all the while conversing with those on the guided walk about the occurrences and his recollections. “We’ve seen quite a few since I last planted,” he says sadly.

Moving Forward with Hope

He desires his work – and