🔗 Share this article

Back in 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger initiated one of his final major projects. Recognized for pioneering auto-destructive art, Metzger had dedicated his life to responding to societal issues from nuclear disarmament to ethical eating. Through a short video message, he made a plea for a worldwide initiative to celebrate the natural world.

“I call upon you for your involvement in this international summons for a day of action to commemorate our planet on 4 November 2015,” he stated, inviting cultural workers to stand against the ongoing loss of living beings. “The mission is to help the public recall of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so art will enter realms that are naturally imaginative.”

The Birth of Environmental Reflection

And so the Nature Remembrance initiative came into being, a day when creatives nationwide developed works to the ongoing environmental crisis. An organizer, who cared for Metzger in his later life, recalls his sense of urgency. “There was a profound sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I just said – we must act now. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to green light this. Take action immediately.”

Ten Years On

A decade on, the project did not incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but Joelson believes its legacy can still be observed in movements like artist-led declarations and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how creatives consider the eco-friendliness of their practices. For this purpose she is reviving it to celebrate its decade milestone. Included in the key participants participating now are Yu-Chen Wang and Anya Gallaccio. All participants have produced imagery, recorded calls to action, and created artworks set to be unveiled on 4 November 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

Interviewing the artist, she is on site in a rural area, helping plant apple trees that will grow to form a coiled garden. Working with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and part learning experience. According to her, the preparation and sowing sessions have already involved learning about measurements (spacing the distances between trees), genetics (exploring the hereditary traits), and origins (researching the journeys of how distinct varieties came to the UK).

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

“A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that releases crimson liquid. They all have histories attached. The historical cultivar was brought over by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that descended from a tree and struck the scientist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more actively aware of the environment and the control we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was urging them, when they go shopping, to read the label and see what they’re called and the source. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Artistic Responses Across the Country

Within the city, a participant’s project on disappearance will engage visitors exploring Tate Modern on a journey to find the seven major glaciers that have been lost in recent years. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the museum surfaces using invisible ink. When located, a alert will occur and a performance will be conducted to honor that particular glacier.

Elsewhere, 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, prepared with sustainable ingredients. In another city, a participant is streaming her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers embark on a mission to sing plants back to health in a local park.

Children’s Voices

Similar to other artists, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is planning to fill a cultural venue in kids’ letters and drawings that document their aspirations and concerns for the future. “Kids’ art are compelling because they’re not as trammelled as grown-ups’,” she says in her call to action video. “The contributions of youth to the world is something truly special and hopefully it will stimulate a sense of responsibility from us all. Kids are unbiased. They have fears about the future. But it isn’t meant to be about fear – it should be about hope and us ensuring that they get a future.”

Memorials and Memory

A participant’s work also connects with children. With a background in performance, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then dressing up as them – and for the initiative he is intending to address a local symbol. He is also staging a itinerant journey of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the past twenty years. This endeavor commenced following he endured multiple occurrences of homophobic abuse on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the spot where it happened and photograph it – the project has since spiralled to incorporate experiences reported by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly birds consume them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

Harfleet chose the flower not just for the clear connection – 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 negative trait,” he says.

The intention on the event day is to plant pansies at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the guided walk about the events and his personal experiences. “There’s been quite a few since I last planted,” he says sadly.

Advancing Positively

The artist wishes his work – and