🔗 Share this article

In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger launched one of his last significant endeavors. Recognized for introducing self-destructive creations, Metzger had dedicated his life to confronting societal issues from nuclear disarmament to vegetarianism. Via a concise video message, he requested support for a global day of action to honor the environment.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your engagement in this international summons for a day of action to reflect on the environment on 4 November 2015,” he stated, inviting cultural workers to resist the continuing disappearance of living beings. “Our responsibility is to help the public recall of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore territories that are inherently creative.”

The Creation of Nature Remembrance

Thus the environmental art day was born, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain produced pieces to the escalating planetary emergency. One of the curators, who worked closely with Metzger in his final years, recalls his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I just said – let’s not mess around. Let’s not wait for financial support or for anyone to green light this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

Ten years later, the project hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but organizers feel its legacy can still be seen in movements like cultural advocacy groups and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how creatives consider the sustainability of their methods. For this purpose she is reviving it to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Included in the 18 lead artists participating now are A Man Called Adam and prominent artists. All participants have designed posters, shared messages, and developed pieces set to be presented on the fourth of November next year.

Cultivating Awareness

Interviewing Anya Gallaccio, she is on site in Kent, helping plant apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and part learning experience. As she explains, the design and cultivation sessions have already included learning about measurements (calculating the planting intervals), biology (discussing the apple’s DNA), and history (mapping the backgrounds of how distinct varieties were introduced to England).

Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that produces crimson liquid

“Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties,” she explains. “We have one apple that produces scarlet-colored sap. Each has stories behind them. The decio apple was brought over by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and landed on the physicist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the natural world and the influence we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, on their next shopping trip, to check the packaging and see their names and where they were grown. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Artistic Responses Across the Country

In London, one artist’s work about extinction will include attendees looking through Tate Modern on a mission to find the ice masses that have been vanished in recent years. Each glacier will be drawn on the gallery’s windows and walls using invisible ink. Whenever one is found, a alert will occur and a recitation will be conducted to remember that specific ice mass.

Elsewhere, up in a northern town, Maddi Nicholson will be presenting a open display about our separation from nature, as well as organizing a communal feast, cooked from sustainable ingredients. In another city, an artist is streaming her musical project, in which community vocalists undertake a task to use music to heal flora in a green space.

Children’s Voices

Similar to other artists, another participant will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is planning to fill an art space in youth creations that document their aspirations and concerns for the tomorrow. “Children’s words and images are powerful because they’re not as trammelled as adults’,” she says in her recorded message. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and hopefully it will provoke a awareness of obligation from each person. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But this shouldn’t be about fear – it should be about optimism and our responsibility that they have a tomorrow.”

Memorials and Memory

Paul Harfleet’s work also connects with children. With a background in performance, his avian project involves illustrating avians and then performing as birds – and for the initiative he is intending to tackle Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also conducting a itinerant journey of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his ongoing series over the last two decades. That ongoing series started after he faced three incidents of prejudice on a one occasion. To counter this, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since spiralled to incorporate experiences experienced by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Apparently wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

The artist selected the flower not just for the clear connection – it has long been a slur – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The project on the event day is to plant pansies at new locations and also renew the tributes in places he has previously memorialised, all the while talking to those on the itinerant journey about the events and his personal experiences. “I’ve recorded quite a few since I last planted,” he says with regret.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and