🔗 Share this article

In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his last important works. Recognized for introducing self-destructive creations, Metzger had spent a lifetime to responding to societal issues from anti-nuclear advocacy to ethical eating. In a brief video message, he made a plea for a worldwide initiative to remember nature.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your involvement in this worldwide call for a day of action to reflect on the environment on November 4th, 2015,” he declared, urging makers and thinkers to oppose the continuing disappearance of flora and fauna. “The mission is to remind people of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore domains that are naturally imaginative.”

The Birth of Nature Remembrance

In this way the Nature Remembrance initiative was established, a day when artists across the country developed works to the unfolding climate catastrophe. One of the curators, who supported Metzger in his last days, remembers his drive for action. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “My advice was – don’t delay. No need to pause for sponsorship or for anyone to authorize this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

After ten years, the initiative may not have sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but Joelson believes its legacy can still be seen in campaigns like Culture Declares and climate activism networks, as well as in how creatives consider the eco-friendliness of their methods. That’s why she is reviving it to mark its 10-year anniversary. Among the key participants participating now are Yu-Chen Wang and Anya Gallaccio. Each has designed posters, recorded calls to action, and produced installations set to be unveiled on November 4, 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

Interviewing Anya Gallaccio, she is working outdoors in the countryside, assisting with planting apple trees that will create a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and somewhat instructive. She describes, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about mathematics (calculating the distances between trees), biology (studying the hereditary traits), and history (tracing the stories of how different apples arrived in Britain).

Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that releases scarcolored sap

“Several the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher,” she explains. “We have one apple that produces crimson liquid. Every one carries background narratives. The decio apple was introduced by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that fell from a tree and struck the scientist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more actively aware of the natural world and the power we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was prompting them, on their next shopping trip, to read the label and see the variety and their origin. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Artistic Responses Nationwide

At the capital, one artist’s work about extinction will involve participants searching a major gallery on a journey to find the frozen formations that have been vanished in the past decade. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the exhibition spaces using invisible ink. Whenever one is found, a alert will occur and a reading will be performed to commemorate that specific ice mass.

At the same time, up in another location, an artist will be putting on a public show about our separation from nature, as well as holding a communal feast, prepared with organic, local produce. Further north, an artist is streaming her musical project, in which regional performers begin a project to use music to heal flora in a green space.

Youth Perspectives

Similar to other artists, another participant will be working with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is aiming to cover an art space in kids’ letters and drawings that capture their aspirations and concerns for the tomorrow. “Children’s words and images are compelling because they’re not as restricted as adults’,” she says in her recorded message. “The contributions of youth to the world is something distinctive and perhaps it can inspire a feeling of duty from everyone. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But this shouldn’t be about worry – it should be about optimism and our responsibility that they see a better world.”

Memorials and Memory

Paul Harfleet’s work also resonates for children. Drawing on past experience, his feathered initiative involves drawing birds and then dressing up as them – and for the event he is intending to tackle an iconic figure. He is also conducting a itinerant journey of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his long-term work over the last two decades. That ongoing series started after he faced several events of discrimination on a particular day. In response, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the spot where it happened and photograph it – the project has since spiralled to cover events experienced by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Apparently pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

Harfleet chose the bloom not just for the clear connection – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its name derives 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 plan on Remember Nature day is to place blooms at fresh spots and also replant flowers in places he has marked earlier, all the while discussing with those on the walking tour about the events and his memories of them. “We’ve seen quite a few since I last planted,” he says with regret.

Moving Forward with Hope

The artist wishes his work – and