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Back in 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his ultimate significant endeavors. Famed for creating auto-destructive art, Metzger had devoted his career to addressing global challenges from nuclear disarmament to vegetarianism. Via a concise video message, he issued a call for a global day of action to celebrate the natural world.

“This is my appeal for your involvement in this global appeal for a day of action to remember nature on November 4th, 2015,” he declared, inviting makers and thinkers to resist the ongoing loss of living beings. “The mission is to make audiences aware of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore domains that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Inception of Nature Remembrance

Thus the environmental art day was established, a day when artists across the country created responses to the escalating planetary emergency. One of the curators, who supported Metzger in his later life, notes his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I just said – we must act now. Let’s not wait for financial support or for anyone to authorize this. Take action immediately.”

Ten Years On

A decade on, the project may not have triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but organizers feel its legacy can still be felt in campaigns like cultural advocacy groups and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how makers handle the eco-friendliness of their practices. This is the reason she is restaging it to celebrate its decade milestone. Among the 18 lead artists taking part currently are Cornelia Parker and other notable figures. Each has produced imagery, recorded calls to action, and produced installations set to be unveiled on the fourth of November next year.

Cultivating Awareness

In conversation with one participant, she is on site in Kent, assisting with planting apple trees that will grow to form a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and somewhat instructive. As she explains, the planning and planting sessions have already involved learning about mathematics (spacing the gaps in the orchard), science (discussing the apple’s DNA), and geography (tracing the journeys of how distinct varieties were introduced to England).

Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarcolored sap

“Several the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties,” she explains. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice. Each has stories behind them. The ancient variety was brought over by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that dropped off a tree and landed on Isaac Newton’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the environment and the control we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was urging them, when they go shopping, to look on the bag and see the variety and their origin. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Artistic Responses Across the Country

In London, a participant’s work about extinction will include attendees looking through an art institution on a quest to find the ice masses that have been vanished in modern times. All formations will be depicted on the museum surfaces using invisible ink. Whenever one is found, a bell will ring and a performance will be held to commemorate that individual formation.

Meanwhile, up in another location, Maddi Nicholson will be hosting a open display about our alienation from the environment, as well as hosting a shared meal, made using regional food. Over in Newcastle, an artist is streaming her musical project, in which regional performers begin a project to use music to heal flora in a local park.

Youth Perspectives

Similar to other artists, another participant will be working with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is aiming to fill a cultural venue in kids’ letters and drawings that document their dreams and worries for the tomorrow. “Kids’ art are compelling because they’re not as inhibited as mature perspectives,” she says in her recorded message. “What children have to offer to the world is something truly special and it may stimulate a sense of responsibility from everyone. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. But let’s not make it about fear – it should be about optimism and us ensuring that they have a tomorrow.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Another artist’s work also resonates for children. As a former drag queen, his Birds Can Fly involves sketching winged creatures and then dressing up as them – and for the event he is planning to tackle a local symbol. He is also organizing a walking tour of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his long-term work over the past twenty years. The project began when he faced several events of discrimination on a single day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the site of each occurrence and photograph it – the project has since expanded to cover events reported by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “It seems birds consume them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

He picked the pansy not just for the obvious reason – 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 thoughtful, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The project on 4 November is to plant pansies at fresh spots and also refresh the memorials in places he has previously memorialised, all the while talking to those on the itinerant journey about the events and his recollections. “We’ve seen quite a few following earlier installations,” he says with regret.

Moving Forward with Hope

He desires his work – and