🔗 Share this article

During 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his last major projects. Recognized for creating art that erases itself, Metzger had dedicated his life to addressing global challenges from nuclear disarmament to vegetarianism. Via a concise video message, he requested support for a international event to celebrate the natural world.

“This is my appeal for your engagement in this worldwide call for a day of action to remember nature on 4 November 2015,” he announced, inviting artists and creatives to oppose the continuing disappearance of species. “The mission is to make audiences aware of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are naturally imaginative.”

The Inception of Nature Remembrance

And so Remember Nature was established, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain produced pieces to the ongoing environmental crisis. An organizer, who cared for Metzger in his final years, remembers his drive for action. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “I urged him – don’t delay. No need to pause for financial support or for anyone to approve this. Take action immediately.”

Ten Years On

Ten years later, the initiative hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but supporters think its impact can still be observed in movements like artist-led declarations and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how creatives consider the sustainability of their practices. For this purpose she is restaging it to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. Included in the key participants taking part currently are Yu-Chen Wang and prominent artists. All participants have created visual art, recorded calls to action, and produced installations set to be presented on the fourth of November next year.

Planting Hope

Interviewing Anya Gallaccio, she is working outdoors in a rural area, assisting with planting apple trees that will grow to form a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and half educational workshop. As she explains, the preparation and sowing sessions have already included learning about maths (calculating the gaps in the orchard), science (exploring the genetic makeup), and geography (tracing the backgrounds of how different apples 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’ crimson liquid

“Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that releases crimson liquid. Each has histories attached. The ancient variety was brought over by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and landed on the scientist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more consciously engaged of the natural world and the influence we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was prompting them, next time they were out, to read the label and see what they’re called and their origin. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Throughout Britain

Within the city, one artist’s Book of Loss will involve participants looking through a major gallery on a quest to find the seven major glaciers that have been vanished in modern times. All formations will be depicted on the exhibition spaces using ultraviolet markers. When located, a chime will sound and a reading will be performed to remember that particular glacier.

Meanwhile, up in another location, an artist will be hosting a public show about our separation from nature, as well as holding a communal feast, cooked from sustainable ingredients. Further north, a participant is sharing her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which community vocalists undertake a task to perform for vegetation in a local park.

Children’s Voices

Following this approach, a featured creator will be engaging schoolchildren – on the day itself she is aiming to fill Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in kids’ letters and drawings that express their hopes and fears for the tomorrow. “Children’s words and images are powerful because they’re not as trammelled as mature perspectives,” she says in her recorded message. “The contributions of youth to the world is something truly special and hopefully it will provoke a awareness of obligation from us all. Youth is pure. They have fears about the future. But let’s not make it about fear – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they see a better world.”

Tributes and Thoughts

A participant’s work also appeals to children. Drawing on past experience, his Birds Can Fly involves drawing birds and then dressing up as them – and for the event he is planning to tackle Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also organizing a guided walk of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his ongoing series over the last two decades. That ongoing series began when he experienced several events of discrimination on a particular day. In response, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the spot where it happened and document it – the project has since expanded to incorporate experiences experienced by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

He picked the flower not just for the direct association – 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 reflective, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The intention on 4 November is to place blooms at fresh spots and also replant flowers in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the walking tour about the occurrences and his memories of them. “We’ve seen quite a few following earlier installations,” he says mournfully.

Moving Forward with Hope

He desires his work – and