🔗 Share this article

During 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his last significant endeavors. Famed for pioneering art that erases itself, Metzger had dedicated his life to confronting global challenges from nuclear disarmament to plant-based living. In a brief video message, he issued a call for a global day of action to remember nature.

“I call upon you for your involvement in this global appeal for a day of action to reflect on the environment on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, inviting makers and thinkers to resist the ongoing loss of species. “The mission is to make audiences aware of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore territories that are inherently creative.”

The Inception of Nature Remembrance

Thus the environmental art day was born, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain created responses to the unfolding climate catastrophe. Jo Joelson, who supported Metzger in his later life, recalls his feeling of immediacy. “There was a profound sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “My advice was – don’t delay. No need to pause for financial support or for anyone to green light this. Take action immediately.”

Ten Years On

After ten years, the project may not have sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but Joelson believes its legacy can still be felt in initiatives like Culture Declares and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how artists approach the environmental impact of their work. This is the reason she is restaging it to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Part of the key participants involved this time are Cornelia Parker and other notable figures. All participants have produced imagery, made video appeals, and developed pieces set to be revealed on November 4, 2025.

Sowing Change

Interviewing one participant, she is working outdoors in a rural area, helping plant apple trees that will create a circular grove. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and somewhat instructive. She describes, the preparation and sowing sessions have already included learning about mathematics (calculating the distances between trees), biology (discussing the apple’s DNA), and history (mapping the journeys of how different apples arrived in Britain).

Several the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that produces scarcolored sap

“A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that releases scarlet-colored sap. They all have histories attached. The historical cultivar was brought over by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and struck the physicist’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 look on the bag and see their names and the source. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Artistic Responses Nationwide

At the capital, one artist’s Book of Loss will engage visitors looking through a major gallery on a mission to find the ice masses that have been lost in the past decade. Every ice sheet will be drawn on the museum surfaces using special pens. When located, a alert will occur and a performance will be conducted to commemorate that specific ice mass.

Meanwhile, up in Barrow-in-Furness, an artist will be putting on a public show about our alienation from the environment, as well as hosting a shared meal, prepared with organic, local produce. In another city, Uta Kögelsberger is streaming her environmental performance, in which community vocalists embark on a mission to sing plants back to health in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Children’s Voices

Following this approach, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is aiming to fill a cultural venue in youth creations that document their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Kids’ art are impactful because they’re not as inhibited as grown-ups’,” she says in her public appeal. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and hopefully it will provoke a sense of responsibility from us all. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But let’s not make it about anxiety – it should be about optimism and making sure that they have a tomorrow.”

Memorials and Memory

Paul Harfleet’s work also appeals to children. Drawing on past experience, his avian project involves illustrating avians and then dressing up as them – and for the initiative he is planning to tackle an iconic figure. He is also organizing a walking tour of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his ongoing series over the past twenty years. The project started after he faced three incidents of prejudice on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the site of each occurrence and record it – the project has since grown to include incidents shared by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “It seems pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

The artist selected the flower not just for the clear connection – 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 terrible thing,” he says.

The plan on 4 November is to plant pansies at additional sites and also refresh the memorials in places he has previously memorialised, all the while conversing with those on the itinerant journey about the occurrences and his personal experiences. “I’ve recorded quite a few since I last planted,” he says with regret.

Progressing Optimistically

Harfleet hopes his work – and