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During 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his final major projects. Known for introducing auto-destructive art, Metzger had dedicated his life to addressing human struggles from nuclear disarmament to plant-based living. In a brief video message, he made a plea for a global day of action to honor the environment.

“This is my appeal for your participation in this global appeal for a day of action to reflect on the environment on 4 November 2015,” he announced, urging makers and thinkers to oppose the ongoing loss of flora and fauna. “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.”

The Inception of Nature Remembrance

And so the environmental art day was born, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain produced pieces to the unfolding climate catastrophe. An organizer, who supported Metzger in his final years, notes his feeling of immediacy. “He had a strong sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I just said – we must act now. No need to pause for financial support or for anyone to green light this. Take action immediately.”

A Decade Later

After ten years, the project hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but organizers feel its influence can still be felt in movements like cultural advocacy groups and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how artists approach the sustainability of their methods. This is the reason she is reviving it to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Among the key participants taking part currently are Yu-Chen Wang and Anya Gallaccio. They have all produced imagery, made video appeals, and developed pieces set to be revealed on 4 November 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

When speaking to Anya Gallaccio, she is working outdoors in the countryside, cultivating apple trees that will create a circular grove. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and half educational workshop. As she explains, the preparation and sowing sessions have already involved learning about measurements (measuring out the planting intervals), science (studying the apple’s DNA), and origins (mapping the backgrounds of how various cultivars came to the UK).

A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that produces crimson liquid

“A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties,” she explains. “We have one apple that produces crimson liquid. They all have stories behind them. The historical cultivar was brought over by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that descended from a tree and struck Isaac Newton’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more consciously engaged of the natural world and the power we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was urging them, on their next shopping trip, to look on the bag and see their names and the source. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Artistic Responses Across the Country

Within the city, a participant’s project on disappearance will involve participants exploring an art institution on a quest to find the ice masses that have been disappeared in modern times. Each glacier will be drawn on the gallery’s windows and walls using special pens. Whenever one is found, a bell will ring and a recitation will be conducted to honor that specific ice mass.

Meanwhile, up in a northern town, a creative will be presenting a free exhibition about our alienation from the environment, as well as hosting a shared meal, cooked from regional food. In another city, an artist is sharing her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which community vocalists undertake a task to sing plants back to health in a green space.

Young Insights

Like Gallaccio, a featured creator will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is planning to decorate Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in children’s artwork that document their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Children’s words and images are compelling because they’re not as restricted as grown-ups’,” she says in her public appeal. “The contributions of youth to the world is something distinctive and perhaps it can inspire a sense of responsibility from us all. Youth is pure. They have anxieties about what’s next. But this shouldn’t be about anxiety – it should be about positivity and making sure that they have a tomorrow.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Another artist’s work also appeals to children. With a background in performance, his feathered initiative involves sketching winged creatures and then dressing up as them – and for the initiative he is planning to represent a local symbol. He is also staging a walking tour of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his ongoing series over the past twenty years. The project commenced following he endured multiple occurrences of homophobic abuse on a particular day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the site of each occurrence and document it – the project has since grown to cover events reported by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

Harfleet chose the pansy not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The intention on the event day is to place blooms at fresh spots and also renew the tributes in places he has marked earlier, all the while conversing with those on the walking tour about the occurrences and his personal experiences. “I’ve recorded quite a few after my previous work,” he says sadly.

Progressing Optimistically

He desires his work – and