Back in 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his ultimate significant endeavors. Famed for creating art that erases itself, Metzger had spent a lifetime to addressing societal issues from anti-nuclear advocacy to vegetarianism. Via a concise video message, he requested support for a worldwide initiative to remember nature.
“I call upon you for your participation in this global appeal for a day of action to remember nature on 4 November 2015,” he declared, urging cultural workers to resist the ongoing loss of living beings. “Our responsibility is to make audiences aware of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore territories that are fundamentally innovative.”
And so the Nature Remembrance initiative was born, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain developed works to the unfolding climate catastrophe. Jo Joelson, who worked closely with Metzger in his final years, remembers his sense of urgency. “He had a great sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “My advice was – let’s not mess around. No need to pause for financial support or for anyone to green light this. Let’s just do it.”
Ten years later, Remember Nature may not have triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its influence can still be seen in campaigns like Culture Declares and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how creatives consider the environmental impact of their practices. For this purpose she is reviving it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Included in the featured creators involved this time are A Man Called Adam and other notable figures. Each has created visual art, made video appeals, and produced installations set to be presented on the fourth of November next year.
When speaking to the artist, she is on site in the countryside, helping plant apple trees that will create a coiled garden. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and somewhat instructive. As she explains, the preparation and sowing sessions have already involved learning about measurements (measuring out the distances between trees), biology (exploring the hereditary traits), and origins (tracing the journeys of how distinct varieties arrived in Britain).
A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that releases crimson liquid
“Several the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that releases scarlet-colored sap. They all have background narratives. The historical cultivar was brought over by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that fell from a tree and struck Isaac Newton’s head.”
Gallaccio wanted the children to be more actively aware of the natural world and the control we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was urging them, on their next shopping trip, to look on the bag and see the variety and where they were grown. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”
In London, Youngsook Choi’s Book of Loss will include attendees exploring a major gallery on a quest to find the ice masses that have been vanished in modern times. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the gallery’s windows and walls using special pens. Whenever one is found, a chime will sound and a performance will be held to honor that particular glacier.
At the same time, up in another location, a creative will be hosting a free exhibition about our disconnection from the land, as well as organizing a shared meal, prepared with organic, local produce. Further north, an artist is streaming her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which local singers undertake a task to sing plants back to health in a local park.
Similar to other artists, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is planning to fill a cultural venue in children’s artwork that express their aspirations and concerns for the years ahead. “Children’s words and images are compelling because they’re not as inhibited as adults’,” she says in her public appeal. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and hopefully it will inspire a sense of responsibility from each person. Children are innocent. They have concerns for tomorrow. But it isn’t meant to be about anxiety – it should be about positivity and making sure that they have a tomorrow.”
A participant’s work also resonates for children. Drawing on past experience, his Birds Can Fly involves illustrating avians and then dressing up as them – and for the initiative he is planning to tackle Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also conducting a guided walk of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his Pansy Project over the past twenty years. This endeavor commenced following he experienced multiple occurrences of prejudice on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the location of every incident and photograph it – the project has since grown to include incidents shared by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly birds consume them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”
The artist selected the bloom not just for the clear connection – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.
The plan on 4 November is to sow flowers at fresh spots and also refresh the memorials in places he has honored before, all the while conversing with those on the itinerant journey about the occurrences and his recollections. “I’ve recorded quite a few since I last planted,” he says mournfully.
Harfleet hopes his work – and
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