🔗 Share this article

In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his last major projects. Recognized for creating auto-destructive art, Metzger had spent a lifetime to addressing human struggles from peace activism to vegetarianism. Through a short video message, he made a plea for a worldwide initiative to honor the environment.

“I call upon you for your participation in this worldwide call for a day of action to reflect on the environment on November 4th, 2015,” he stated, inviting makers and thinkers to stand against the steady eradication of species. “Our task is to help the public recall of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore territories that are naturally imaginative.”

The Inception of Remember Nature

Thus Remember Nature was born, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain created responses to the ongoing environmental crisis. An organizer, who worked closely with Metzger in his final years, recalls his sense of urgency. “I sensed a profound sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “My advice was – let’s not mess around. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to approve this. Take action immediately.”

A Decade Later

Ten years later, the project did not incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but Joelson believes its impact can still be felt in movements like artist-led declarations and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how makers handle the sustainability of their methods. That’s why she is restaging it to celebrate its decade milestone. Included in the 18 lead artists participating now are Cornelia Parker and prominent artists. Each has produced imagery, made video appeals, and produced installations set to be presented on the fourth of November next year.

Planting Hope

In conversation with the artist, she is out in a field in Kent, assisting with planting apple trees that will develop into a coiled garden. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and somewhat instructive. According to her, the planning and planting sessions have already incorporated learning about measurements (spacing the distances between trees), science (exploring the hereditary traits), and origins (mapping the journeys of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

Several the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that produces crimson liquid

“Several the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties,” she explains. “We have one apple that releases scarlet-colored sap. Each has background narratives. The decio apple was imported by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that descended from a tree and hit Isaac Newton’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more actively aware of nature and the power we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, on their next shopping trip, to check the packaging and see what they’re called and the source. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Cultural Projects Throughout Britain

At the capital, a participant’s work about extinction will include attendees searching an art institution on a journey to find the ice masses that have been lost in the past decade. Every ice sheet will be illustrated on the museum surfaces using special pens. When located, a alert will occur and a reading will be conducted to honor that individual formation.

Elsewhere, up in another location, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a open display about our separation from nature, as well as hosting a communal feast, made using regional food. In another city, an artist is sharing her environmental performance, in which local singers undertake a task to use music to heal flora in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Young Insights

Following this approach, a featured creator will be engaging schoolchildren – on the actual event she is aiming to cover Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in youth creations that capture their dreams and worries for the tomorrow. “Kids’ art are powerful because they’re not as inhibited as grown-ups’,” she says in her call to action video. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and perhaps it can inspire a feeling of duty from us all. Kids are unbiased. They have concerns for tomorrow. But let’s not make it about worry – it should be about positivity and our responsibility that they see a better world.”

Remembrance and Reflection

A participant’s work also connects with 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 address an iconic figure. He is also organizing a walking tour of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his long-term work over the recent decades. This endeavor began when he endured three incidents of homophobic abuse on a single day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the spot where it happened and document it – the project has since expanded to cover events reported by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “It seems birds consume them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

The artist selected the bloom not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The project on Remember Nature day is to sow flowers at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while conversing with those on the itinerant journey about the incidents and his personal experiences. “There’s been quite a few following earlier installations,” he says mournfully.

Advancing Positively

He desires his work – and