🔗 Share this article

During 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger initiated one of his ultimate important works. Recognized for introducing art that erases itself, Metzger had spent a lifetime to responding to human struggles from nuclear disarmament to plant-based living. Through a short video message, he issued a call for a worldwide initiative to celebrate the natural world.

“I call upon you for your participation in this international summons for a day of action to remember nature on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, inviting cultural workers to oppose the ongoing loss of species. “Our task is to help the public recall of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so art will enter domains that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Creation of Environmental Reflection

Thus the Nature Remembrance initiative came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain developed works to the escalating planetary emergency. One of the curators, who cared for Metzger in his final years, remembers his feeling of immediacy. “He had a great sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I just said – let’s not mess around. We shouldn’t hold back for funding or for anyone to green light this. Take action immediately.”

After Ten Years

Ten years later, the project hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but Joelson believes its influence can still be observed in initiatives like Culture Declares and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how artists approach the environmental impact of their methods. This is the reason she is relaunching it to commemorate its ten-year mark. Part of the featured creators participating now are A Man Called Adam and other notable figures. They have all produced imagery, shared messages, and produced installations set to be revealed on 4 November 2025.

Planting Hope

In conversation with one participant, she is working outdoors in Kent, helping plant apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Working with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and somewhat instructive. She describes, the planning and planting sessions have already incorporated learning about measurements (spacing the gaps in the orchard), science (studying the genetic makeup), and history (mapping the journeys of how distinct varieties arrived in Britain).

A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that produces scarcolored sap

“Several the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill,” she explains. “We have one apple that releases crimson liquid. They all have histories attached. The ancient variety was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and struck Isaac Newton’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the natural world and the influence we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was prompting them, when they go shopping, to look on the bag and see what they’re called and their origin. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Nationwide

At the capital, one artist’s work about extinction will involve participants exploring Tate Modern on a journey to find the seven major glaciers that have been lost in recent years. Each glacier will be depicted on the exhibition spaces using invisible ink. When located, a chime will sound and a reading will be conducted to remember that individual formation.

Meanwhile, up in Barrow-in-Furness, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a open display about our disconnection from the land, as well as holding a communal feast, made using regional food. In another city, an artist is sharing her musical project, in which community vocalists undertake a task to sing plants back to health in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Children’s Voices

Similar to other artists, another participant will be working with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is aiming to cover a cultural venue in youth creations that capture their aspirations and concerns for the tomorrow. “Kids’ art are powerful because they’re not as trammelled as mature perspectives,” she says in her call to action video. “Young people’s input to the world is something truly special and it may provoke a awareness of obligation from everyone. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. But this shouldn’t be about worry – it should be about optimism and making sure that they see a better world.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Another artist’s work also resonates for children. With a background in performance, his feathered initiative involves drawing birds and then performing as birds – and for Remember Nature day he is aiming to represent a local symbol. 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 began when he experienced multiple occurrences of prejudice on a particular day. In response, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the site of each occurrence and document it – the project has since expanded to cover events shared by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “It seems wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

He picked the flower not just for the direct association – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The intention on 4 November is to place blooms at additional sites and also refresh the memorials in places he has previously memorialised, all the while talking to those on the guided walk about the incidents and his memories of them. “I’ve recorded quite a few after my previous work,” he says mournfully.

Moving Forward with Hope

Harfleet hopes his work – and