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During 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his final important works. Recognized for introducing art that erases itself, Metzger had devoted his career to addressing human struggles from nuclear disarmament to vegetarianism. In a brief video message, he requested support for a global day of action to honor the environment.

“This is my appeal for your participation in this worldwide call for a day of action to reflect on the environment on 4 November 2015,” he declared, encouraging cultural workers to oppose the continuing disappearance of flora and fauna. “Our task is to help the public recall of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into territories that are naturally imaginative.”

The Birth of Remember Nature

Thus the environmental art day was born, a day when artists across the country created responses to the ongoing environmental crisis. Jo Joelson, who worked closely with Metzger in his final years, remembers his sense of urgency. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “My advice was – don’t delay. Let’s not wait for funding or for anyone to approve this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

After ten years, the initiative hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but Joelson believes its legacy can still be observed in campaigns like artist-led declarations and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how makers handle the sustainability of their methods. For this purpose she is relaunching it to commemorate its ten-year mark. Among the featured creators taking part currently are Yu-Chen Wang and Anya Gallaccio. All participants have produced imagery, recorded calls to action, and produced installations set to be unveiled on November 4, 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

In conversation with the artist, she is working outdoors in Kent, helping plant apple trees that will grow to form a spiral-shaped orchard. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and somewhat instructive. She describes, the planning and planting sessions have already involved learning about measurements (spacing the gaps in the orchard), science (discussing the genetic makeup), and origins (tracing the journeys of how various cultivars came to the UK).

Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that releases crimson liquid

“Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that produces scarlet-colored sap. Each has background narratives. The ancient variety was brought over by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that descended from a tree and hit the scientist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more consciously engaged of the environment and the power we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was prompting them, next time they were out, to look on the bag and see what they’re called and their origin. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Artistic Responses Nationwide

In London, a participant’s Book of Loss will include attendees searching Tate Modern on a mission to find the ice masses that have been vanished in modern times. All formations will be depicted on the museum surfaces using ultraviolet markers. When located, a bell will ring and a performance will be performed to honor that specific ice mass.

Meanwhile, up in Barrow-in-Furness, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a free exhibition about our alienation from the environment, as well as organizing a shared meal, cooked from regional food. Further north, a participant is sharing her environmental performance, in which regional performers begin a project to perform for vegetation in a local park.

Young Insights

Like Gallaccio, another participant will be working with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is planning to decorate a cultural venue in kids’ letters and drawings that express their hopes and fears for the tomorrow. “Youthful expressions are powerful because they’re not as restricted as adults’,” she says in her recorded message. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and hopefully it will stimulate a awareness of obligation from us all. Children are innocent. They have concerns for tomorrow. But let’s not make it about worry – it should be about optimism and our responsibility that they see a better world.”

Memorials and Memory

A participant’s work also connects with children. As a former drag queen, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for the event he is planning to tackle an iconic figure. He is also staging a itinerant journey of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his Pansy Project over the past twenty years. That ongoing series started after he endured multiple occurrences of discrimination on a single day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the location of every incident and photograph it – the project has since grown to incorporate experiences shared by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “It seems wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

The artist selected the flower not just for the direct association – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The plan on the event day is to sow flowers at additional sites and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while discussing with those on the itinerant journey about the events and his memories of them. “We’ve seen quite a few after my previous work,” he says mournfully.

Moving Forward with Hope

The artist wishes his work – and