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Back in 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger initiated one of his last major projects. Recognized for introducing auto-destructive art, Metzger had spent a lifetime to addressing global challenges from peace activism to ethical eating. In a brief video message, he requested support for a global day of action to celebrate the natural world.

“I call upon you for your involvement in this worldwide call for a day of action to reflect on the environment on November 4th, 2015,” he declared, inviting artists and creatives to oppose the ongoing loss of flora and fauna. “Our task is to help the public recall of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore domains that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Creation of Environmental Reflection

And so the environmental art day was established, a day when artists across the country produced pieces to the unfolding climate catastrophe. Jo Joelson, who supported Metzger in his last days, notes his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a profound sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I just said – don’t delay. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to green light this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

Ten years later, the initiative hasn’t quite triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but organizers feel its legacy can still be seen in campaigns like cultural advocacy groups and environmental protests, as well as in how makers handle the eco-friendliness of their practices. That’s why she is relaunching it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Among the 18 lead artists participating now are Yu-Chen Wang and Anya Gallaccio. They have all created visual art, recorded calls to action, and produced installations set to be revealed on the fourth of November next year.

Cultivating Awareness

In conversation with one participant, she is on site in a rural area, cultivating apple trees that will grow to form a spiral-shaped orchard. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and half educational workshop. As she explains, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about mathematics (calculating the distances between trees), biology (exploring the genetic makeup), and geography (researching the backgrounds of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

Several the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarcolored sap

“Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice. They all have histories attached. The historical cultivar was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and struck the scientist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more actively aware of the environment and the control we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was prompting them, next time they were out, to look on the bag and see their names and their origin. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Throughout Britain

In London, a participant’s project on disappearance will engage visitors exploring an art institution on a mission to find the seven major glaciers that have been vanished in the past decade. Each glacier will be drawn on the gallery’s windows and walls using ultraviolet markers. Each discovery, a alert will occur and a performance will be conducted to remember that specific ice mass.

Elsewhere, up in a northern town, Maddi Nicholson will be hosting a free exhibition about our alienation from the environment, as well as organizing a shared meal, cooked from organic, local produce. Over in Newcastle, a participant is streaming her musical project, in which regional performers embark on a mission to perform for vegetation in a local park.

Youth Perspectives

Following this approach, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is planning to decorate a cultural venue in children’s artwork that express their dreams and worries for the years ahead. “Children’s words and images 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 truly special and hopefully it will inspire a awareness of obligation from us all. Youth is pure. They have anxieties about what’s next. But it isn’t meant to be about worry – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they get a future.”

Remembrance and Reflection

A participant’s work also resonates for children. Drawing on past experience, his avian project involves illustrating avians and then performing as birds – and for the event he is aiming 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 past twenty years. This endeavor began when he endured multiple occurrences of homophobic abuse on a single day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the spot where it happened and photograph it – the project has since grown to include incidents shared by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “It seems birds consume them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

The artist selected the bloom not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The intention on the event day is to sow flowers at fresh spots and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while conversing with those on the itinerant journey about the occurrences and his recollections. “We’ve seen quite a few since I last planted,” he says mournfully.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and