In 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger launched one of his last major projects. Known for introducing art that erases itself, Metzger had dedicated his life to confronting societal issues from nuclear disarmament to ethical eating. Via a concise video message, he issued a call for a international event to honor the environment.
“This is my appeal for your involvement in this worldwide call for a day of action to remember nature on the fourth of November, 2015,” he stated, inviting makers and thinkers to oppose the continuing disappearance of species. “The mission is to help the public recall of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are fundamentally innovative.”
In this way the Nature Remembrance initiative came into being, a day when artists across the country produced pieces to the unfolding climate catastrophe. Jo Joelson, who worked closely with Metzger in his later life, recalls his sense of urgency. “I sensed a strong sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “My advice was – we must act now. No need to pause for sponsorship or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”
Ten years later, the initiative did not triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but organizers feel its impact can still be observed in campaigns like Culture Declares and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how artists approach the eco-friendliness of their practices. This is the reason she is relaunching it to celebrate its decade milestone. Included in the featured creators involved this time are Yu-Chen Wang and Anya Gallaccio. Each has produced imagery, made video appeals, and produced installations set to be unveiled on November 4, 2025.
When speaking to the artist, she is on site in a rural area, assisting with planting apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Working with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and part learning experience. 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 origins (tracing the journeys of how various cultivars came to the UK).
Several the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that produces crimson liquid
“A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid. They all have stories behind them. The decio apple was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and hit the physicist’s head.”
She hoped the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the natural world and the influence we have over it. “To many of them, 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 the variety and the source. Hopefully it says Kent!”
In London, a participant’s Book of Loss will include attendees looking through Tate Modern on a journey to find the ice masses that have been disappeared in recent years. Each glacier will be drawn on the museum surfaces using invisible ink. When located, a chime will sound and a recitation will be performed to remember that individual formation.
Elsewhere, up in Barrow-in-Furness, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a open display about our separation from nature, as well as holding a community dinner, cooked from regional food. In another city, an artist is broadcasting her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which community vocalists begin a project to sing plants back to health in a green space.
Like Gallaccio, another participant will be working with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is aiming to decorate a cultural venue in youth creations that document their dreams and worries for the future. “Youthful expressions are powerful because they’re not as trammelled as adults’,” she says in her call to action video. “What children have to offer to the world is something quite unique and hopefully it will stimulate a feeling of duty from everyone. Children are innocent. They have anxieties about what’s next. But it isn’t meant to be about fear – it should be about hope and us ensuring that they see a better world.”
A participant’s work also resonates for children. With a background in performance, his feathered initiative involves sketching winged creatures and then dressing up as them – and for the initiative he is aiming to tackle Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also staging a walking tour of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his ongoing series over the last two decades. That ongoing series started after he endured multiple occurrences of homophobic abuse on a particular day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the location of every incident and document it – the project has since expanded to incorporate experiences reported by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Apparently birds consume them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”
He picked the bloom not just for the direct association – it has long been a slur – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.
The project on the event day is to place blooms at additional sites and also renew the tributes in places he has honored before, all the while talking to those on the guided walk about the occurrences and his personal experiences. “We’ve seen quite a few after my previous work,” he says with regret.
The artist wishes his work – and
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