Artists Fight Back In the Face of the Climate Emergency: Planting the Fruit That Dropped on Newton's Head

During 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger initiated one of his final significant endeavors. Famed for pioneering art that erases itself, Metzger had spent a lifetime to confronting human struggles from anti-nuclear advocacy to plant-based living. Through a short video message, he issued a call for a worldwide initiative to celebrate the natural world.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your engagement in this worldwide call for a day of action to remember nature on November 4th, 2015,” he declared, urging artists and creatives to resist the ongoing loss of flora and fauna. “The mission is to remind people of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore territories that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Creation of Environmental Reflection

Thus Remember Nature was born, a day when artists across the country created responses to the ongoing environmental crisis. Jo Joelson, who supported Metzger in his last days, notes his feeling of immediacy. “There was a great sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “I just said – we must act now. We shouldn’t hold back for sponsorship or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

A Decade Later

After ten years, the initiative did not incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its legacy can still be observed in movements like artist-led declarations and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how makers handle the environmental impact of their work. That’s why she is restaging it to mark its decade milestone. Included in the 18 lead artists taking part currently are A Man Called Adam and prominent artists. Each has designed posters, shared messages, and developed pieces set to be revealed on the fourth of November next year.

Planting Hope

When speaking to Anya Gallaccio, she is out in a field in Kent, assisting with planting apple trees that will grow to form a coiled garden. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and half educational workshop. She describes, the preparation and sowing sessions have already involved learning about mathematics (spacing the planting intervals), science (studying the hereditary traits), and history (mapping the backgrounds of how distinct varieties arrived in Britain).

Several the apples were picked 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 amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that releases scarlet-colored sap. Each has background narratives. The ancient variety was introduced by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that fell from a tree and struck Isaac Newton’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more consciously engaged of nature and the influence we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was urging them, when they go shopping, to read the label and see the variety and where they were grown. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Artistic Responses Nationwide

At the capital, a participant’s Book of Loss will involve participants exploring Tate Modern on a journey to find the ice masses that have been lost in the past decade. Every ice sheet will be drawn on the gallery’s windows and walls using invisible ink. Each discovery, a alert will occur and a reading will be held to commemorate that particular glacier.

Meanwhile, up in Barrow-in-Furness, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a free exhibition about our alienation from the environment, as well as holding a community dinner, made using sustainable ingredients. In another city, an artist is broadcasting her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers undertake a task to use music to heal flora in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Youth Perspectives

Following this approach, Cornelia Parker will be engaging schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is aiming to fill an art space in youth creations that document their hopes and fears for the future. “Youthful expressions are impactful because they’re not as inhibited as adults’,” she says in her recorded message. “What children have to offer to the world is something truly special and it may inspire a feeling of duty from us all. Children are innocent. They have concerns for tomorrow. But it isn’t meant to be about anxiety – it should be about optimism and our responsibility that they see a better world.”

Tributes and Thoughts

A participant’s work also resonates for children. With a background in performance, his Birds Can Fly involves illustrating avians and then dressing up as them – and for Remember Nature day he is intending to tackle an iconic figure. He is also organizing a walking tour of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his Pansy Project over the last two decades. The project started after he experienced multiple occurrences of homophobic abuse on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since expanded to cover events reported by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Apparently wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

The artist selected the pansy not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The plan on 4 November is to plant pansies at additional sites and also renew the tributes in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the guided walk about the events and his memories of them. “There’s been quite a few since I last planted,” he says with regret.

Moving Forward with Hope

The artist wishes his work – and