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During 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger initiated one of his ultimate major projects. Known for introducing self-destructive creations, Metzger had devoted his career to addressing human struggles from anti-nuclear advocacy to ethical eating. Through a short video message, he issued a call for a worldwide initiative to celebrate the natural world.

“I call upon you for your involvement in this global appeal for a day of action to remember nature on the fourth of November, 2015,” he stated, urging artists and creatives to oppose the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “The mission is to remind people of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore domains that are inherently creative.”

The Birth of Nature Remembrance

Thus the environmental art day came into being, a day when creatives nationwide developed works to the unfolding climate catastrophe. Jo Joelson, who supported Metzger in his last days, notes his sense of urgency. “There was a great sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “I urged him – don’t delay. We shouldn’t hold back for sponsorship or for anyone to green light this. Take action immediately.”

Ten Years On

A decade on, the initiative hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but organizers feel its legacy can still be observed in campaigns like artist-led declarations and climate activism networks, as well as in how artists approach the environmental impact of their methods. This is the reason she is restaging it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Part of the featured creators involved this time are A Man Called Adam and Anya Gallaccio. Each has created visual art, recorded calls to action, and developed pieces set to be unveiled on November 4, 2025.

Planting Hope

Interviewing the artist, she is working outdoors in Kent, helping plant apple trees that will create a spiral-shaped orchard. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and somewhat instructive. As she explains, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about maths (calculating the distances between trees), biology (discussing the hereditary traits), and geography (researching the stories of how different apples were introduced to England).

A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid

“Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill,” she explains. “We have one apple that releases scarlet-colored sap. They all have histories attached. The decio apple was introduced by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that fell from a tree and landed on the scientist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the environment and the control we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was urging them, on their next shopping trip, to read the label and see the variety and the source. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Across the Country

In London, Youngsook Choi’s work about extinction will include attendees searching an art institution on a quest to find the frozen formations that have been vanished in recent years. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the museum surfaces using invisible ink. Each discovery, a alert will occur and a performance will be conducted to honor that specific ice mass.

Elsewhere, up in Barrow-in-Furness, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a free exhibition about our alienation from the environment, as well as hosting a communal feast, cooked from organic, local produce. Further north, an artist is streaming her environmental performance, in which community vocalists begin a project to sing plants back to health in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Children’s Voices

Following this approach, Cornelia Parker will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is hoping to cover Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in youth creations that capture their aspirations and concerns for the future. “Children’s words and images are compelling 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 hopefully it will stimulate a awareness of obligation from us all. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. 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

Paul Harfleet’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 Remember Nature day he is aiming to address a local symbol. He is also staging a guided walk of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his ongoing series over the last two decades. The project commenced following he faced several events of prejudice on a single day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the spot where it happened and record it – the project has since grown to include incidents reported by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “It seems pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

Harfleet chose the flower not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with 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 new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the walking tour about the events and his memories of them. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says mournfully.

Progressing Optimistically

Harfleet hopes his work – and