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In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his last important works. Recognized for creating art that erases itself, Metzger had spent a lifetime to confronting global challenges from peace activism to ethical eating. Through a short video message, he made a plea for a international event to honor the environment.

“I call upon you for your involvement in this worldwide call for a day of action to commemorate our planet on the fourth of November, 2015,” he declared, inviting cultural workers to oppose the ongoing loss of flora and fauna. “The mission is to help the public recall of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore domains that are naturally imaginative.”

The Inception of Environmental Reflection

And so the environmental art day came into being, a day when creatives nationwide created responses to the escalating planetary emergency. One of the curators, who cared for Metzger in his final years, recalls his sense of urgency. “I sensed a profound sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “My advice was – let’s not mess around. Let’s not wait for sponsorship or for anyone to green light this. We should proceed.”

A Decade Later

A decade on, the initiative hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but organizers feel its influence can still be seen in campaigns like cultural advocacy groups and climate activism networks, as well as in how artists approach the environmental impact of their practices. For this purpose she is restaging it to commemorate its decade milestone. Part of the 18 lead artists participating now are A Man Called Adam and Anya Gallaccio. Each has designed posters, shared messages, and created artworks set to be presented on the fourth of November next year.

Sowing Change

Interviewing one participant, she is out in a field in the countryside, helping plant apple trees that will develop into a coiled garden. Working with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and somewhat instructive. She describes, the planning and planting sessions have already included learning about measurements (calculating the planting intervals), genetics (discussing the apple’s DNA), and origins (researching the stories of how distinct varieties were introduced to England).

Several the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that produces red juice

“Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that releases scarlet-colored sap. They all have histories attached. The decio apple was imported by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that dropped off a tree and landed on Isaac Newton’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more thoughtfully connected of nature 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 read the label and see the variety and where they were grown. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Cultural Projects Across the Country

In London, one artist’s Book of Loss will include attendees looking through a major gallery on a mission to find the frozen formations that have been disappeared in the past decade. All formations will be depicted on the exhibition spaces using special pens. Each discovery, a alert will occur and a recitation will be conducted to remember that particular glacier.

At the same time, up in Barrow-in-Furness, a creative will be hosting a free exhibition about our alienation from the environment, as well as organizing a community dinner, made using sustainable ingredients. Further north, a participant is sharing her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers begin a project to perform for vegetation in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Youth Perspectives

Like Gallaccio, Cornelia Parker will be engaging schoolchildren – on the actual event she is aiming to fill an art space in kids’ letters and drawings that express their hopes and fears for the future. “Kids’ art are compelling because they’re not as trammelled as adults’,” she says in her call to action video. “The contributions of youth to the world is something distinctive and perhaps it can stimulate a awareness of obligation from everyone. Kids are unbiased. They have fears about the future. But let’s not make it about anxiety – it should be about hope and making sure that they have a tomorrow.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Another artist’s work also connects with children. With a background in performance, his feathered initiative involves sketching winged creatures and then dressing up as them – and for the event he is aiming to tackle a local symbol. He is also staging a guided walk of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his long-term work over the recent decades. The project started after he experienced multiple occurrences of discrimination on a particular day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the spot where it happened and record it – the project has since expanded to cover events shared by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “It seems wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

The artist selected the flower not just for the clear connection – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The project on 4 November is to place blooms at additional sites and also renew the tributes in places he has marked earlier, all the while discussing with those on the walking tour about the events and his memories of them. “We’ve seen quite a few since I last planted,” he says sadly.

Advancing Positively

He desires his work – and