🔗 Share this article

During 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger launched one of his ultimate important works. Recognized for introducing self-destructive creations, Metzger had spent a lifetime to responding to human struggles from nuclear disarmament to vegetarianism. Via a concise video message, he made a plea for a international event to celebrate the natural world.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your participation in this international summons for a day of action to reflect on the environment on 4 November 2015,” he announced, urging makers and thinkers to resist the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “The mission is to help the public recall of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so art will enter territories that are naturally imaginative.”

The Inception of Nature Remembrance

And so Remember Nature came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain developed works to the ongoing environmental crisis. One of the curators, who worked closely with Metzger in his later life, remembers his sense of urgency. “He had a profound sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – we must act now. We shouldn’t hold back for financial support or for anyone to authorize this. Take action immediately.”

Ten Years On

A decade on, the initiative may not have incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but supporters think its impact can still be observed in campaigns like artist-led declarations and environmental protests, as well as in how makers handle the eco-friendliness of their methods. That’s why she is relaunching it to mark its ten-year mark. Among the 18 lead artists involved this time are Yu-Chen Wang and other notable figures. Each has produced imagery, shared messages, and created artworks set to be revealed on November 4, 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

When speaking to one participant, she is on site in Kent, cultivating apple trees that will grow to form a spiral-shaped orchard. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and somewhat instructive. According to her, the planning and planting sessions have already incorporated learning about measurements (spacing the planting intervals), biology (discussing the hereditary traits), and origins (tracing the backgrounds of how different apples arrived in Britain).

A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarcolored sap

“Several the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties,” she explains. “We have one apple that produces scarlet-colored sap. Every one carries stories behind them. The ancient variety was introduced by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that fell from a tree and hit the scientist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the natural world and the power we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was prompting them, on their next shopping trip, to look on the bag and see their names and where they were grown. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Throughout Britain

Within the city, one artist’s Book of Loss will involve participants exploring an art institution on a journey to find the frozen formations that have been lost in recent years. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the gallery’s windows and walls using special pens. When located, a bell will ring and a recitation will be held to honor that individual formation.

At the same time, up in another location, Maddi Nicholson will be hosting a open display about our alienation from the environment, as well as holding a communal feast, made using sustainable ingredients. Over in Newcastle, Uta Kögelsberger is broadcasting her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which local singers begin a project to perform for vegetation in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Youth Perspectives

Following this approach, Cornelia Parker will be engaging schoolchildren – on the day itself she is planning to fill an art space in youth creations that express their hopes and fears for the tomorrow. “Kids’ art are compelling because they’re not as restricted as grown-ups’,” she says in her call to action video. “Young people’s input to the world is something truly special and it may stimulate a awareness of obligation from everyone. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. But it isn’t meant to be about anxiety – it should be about positivity and making sure that they have a tomorrow.”

Memorials and Memory

Paul Harfleet’s work also appeals to children. As a former drag queen, his Birds Can Fly involves illustrating avians and then dressing up as them – and for Remember Nature day he is planning to represent a local symbol. He is also conducting a guided walk of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his long-term work over the last two decades. This endeavor commenced following he experienced three incidents of prejudice on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the spot where it happened and photograph it – the project has since spiralled to include incidents experienced by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

The artist selected the pansy not just for the direct association – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The plan on Remember Nature day is to plant pansies at fresh spots and also replant flowers in places he has marked earlier, all the while discussing with those on the guided walk about the occurrences and his personal experiences. “We’ve seen quite a few since I last planted,” he says with regret.

Moving Forward with Hope

The artist wishes his work – and