Cultural Figures Take a Stand Against the Environmental Crisis: Cultivating the Fruit That Fell on Newton's Head

During 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger launched one of his final major projects. Famed for creating art that erases itself, Metzger had devoted his career to responding to societal issues from peace activism to plant-based living. Via a concise video message, he issued a call for a worldwide initiative to honor the environment.

“I call upon you for your participation in this global appeal for a day of action to commemorate our planet on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, urging artists and creatives to resist the steady eradication of species. “The mission is to help the public recall of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into realms that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Birth of Remember Nature

Thus the environmental art day was established, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain developed works to the escalating planetary emergency. An organizer, who supported Metzger in his last days, remembers his sense of urgency. “There was a profound sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “My advice was – let’s not mess around. No need to pause for sponsorship or for anyone to authorize this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

After ten years, the initiative hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but Joelson believes its legacy can still be felt in initiatives like Culture Declares and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how artists approach the sustainability of their work. For this purpose she is restaging it to mark its ten-year mark. Part of the featured creators taking part currently are A Man Called Adam and prominent artists. Each has designed posters, shared messages, and produced installations set to be unveiled on the fourth of November next year.

Cultivating Awareness

In conversation with Anya Gallaccio, she is on site in Kent, assisting with planting apple trees that will create a coiled garden. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and part learning experience. As she explains, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about maths (spacing the distances between trees), genetics (discussing the apple’s DNA), and origins (tracing the stories of how different apples came to the UK).

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

“Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that releases scarlet-colored sap. Every one carries stories behind them. The ancient variety was introduced by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and landed on the physicist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the natural world and the control we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was urging them, when they go shopping, to check the packaging and see the variety and where they were grown. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Cultural Projects Across the Country

Within the city, one artist’s work about extinction will involve participants searching Tate Modern on a journey to find the ice masses that have been lost in the past decade. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the museum surfaces using ultraviolet markers. Each discovery, a chime will sound and a reading will be held to remember that particular glacier.

Meanwhile, up in another location, an artist will be hosting a open display about our disconnection from the land, as well as organizing a communal feast, made using regional food. In another city, an artist is sharing her musical project, in which local singers embark on a mission to sing plants back to health in a green space.

Young Insights

Like Gallaccio, Cornelia Parker will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is hoping to decorate a cultural venue in kids’ letters and drawings that express their hopes and fears for the tomorrow. “Children’s words and images are compelling because they’re not as restricted as grown-ups’,” she says in her call to action video. “What children have to offer to the world is something truly special and hopefully it will provoke a feeling of duty from everyone. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But this shouldn’t be about anxiety – it should be about positivity and our responsibility that they get a future.”

Tributes and Thoughts

A participant’s work also appeals to children. With a background in performance, his feathered initiative involves drawing birds and then performing as birds – and for Remember Nature day he is aiming to tackle Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also organizing a guided walk of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his ongoing series over the recent decades. The project commenced following he endured three incidents of discrimination on a particular day. In response, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the site of each occurrence and document it – the project has since grown to incorporate experiences reported by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Apparently pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

Harfleet chose the flower not just for the clear connection – 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 contemplative, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The project on the event day is to place blooms at fresh spots and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the walking tour about the occurrences and his memories of them. “There’s been quite a few following earlier installations,” he says sadly.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and