Artists Fight Back In the Face of the Environmental Crisis: Cultivating the Apple That Fell on Isaac Newton's Head

During 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his final important works. Famed for creating art that erases itself, Metzger had spent a lifetime to responding to human struggles from peace activism to plant-based living. In a brief video message, he requested support for a international event 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 the fourth of November, 2015,” he announced, encouraging cultural workers to stand against the ongoing loss of species. “Our task is to help the public recall of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so art will enter domains that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Birth of Environmental Reflection

And so the Nature Remembrance initiative was established, a day when artists across the country created responses to the ongoing environmental crisis. Jo Joelson, who worked closely with Metzger in his last days, remembers his feeling of immediacy. “He had a profound sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – don’t delay. No need to pause for financial support or for anyone to green light this. Let’s just do it.”

A Decade Later

Ten years later, the initiative hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but supporters think its impact can still be observed in campaigns like cultural advocacy groups and climate activism networks, as well as in how creatives consider the eco-friendliness of their work. That’s why she is relaunching it to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. Part of the 18 lead artists involved this time are A Man Called Adam and other notable figures. All participants have designed posters, recorded calls to action, and developed pieces set to be revealed on the fourth of November next year.

Sowing Change

In conversation with the artist, she is on site in Kent, assisting with planting apple trees that will create a coiled garden. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and half educational workshop. According to her, the planning and planting sessions have already included learning about measurements (spacing the gaps in the orchard), genetics (discussing the hereditary traits), and geography (researching the journeys of how various cultivars came to the UK).

Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that produces crimson liquid

“Several the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties,” she explains. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice. Each has background narratives. The decio apple was introduced by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that fell from a tree and struck the scientist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more consciously engaged of nature and the control we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, next time they were out, to look on the bag and see their names and where they were grown. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Artistic Responses Across the Country

At the capital, Youngsook Choi’s project on disappearance will include attendees searching a major gallery on a mission to find the seven major glaciers that have been lost in the past decade. Every ice sheet will be illustrated on the museum surfaces using ultraviolet markers. Each discovery, a alert will occur and a reading will be held to commemorate that individual formation.

Meanwhile, up in a northern town, Maddi Nicholson will be presenting a public show about our separation from nature, as well as hosting a communal feast, cooked from sustainable ingredients. Over in Newcastle, a participant is streaming her musical project, in which community vocalists embark on a mission to use music to heal flora in a local park.

Youth Perspectives

Following this approach, another participant will be engaging schoolchildren – on the actual event she is planning to fill an art space in youth creations that express their aspirations and concerns for the tomorrow. “Youthful expressions are compelling because they’re not as inhibited as mature perspectives,” she says in her call to action video. “What children have to offer to the world is something distinctive and hopefully it will stimulate a sense of responsibility from us all. Children are innocent. They have fears about the future. But this shouldn’t be about fear – it should be about optimism and making sure that they see a better world.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Another artist’s work also appeals to children. With a background in performance, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then dressing up as them – and for the initiative he is aiming to represent a local symbol. He is also organizing a itinerant journey of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his Pansy Project over the recent decades. That ongoing series started after he faced several events of discrimination on a single day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the spot where it happened and document it – the project has since expanded to incorporate experiences shared by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

Harfleet chose the flower not just for the clear connection – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – 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 project on the event day is to place blooms at fresh spots and also replant flowers in places he has previously memorialised, all the while talking to those on the guided walk about the incidents and his memories of them. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says mournfully.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and