Creatives Fight Back In the Face of the Environmental Crisis: Cultivating the Apple That Dropped on Newton's Head

During 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger initiated one of his last major projects. Known for pioneering self-destructive creations, Metzger had devoted his career to responding to global challenges from anti-nuclear advocacy to vegetarianism. In a brief video message, he issued a call for a international event to honor the environment.

“This is my appeal for your engagement in this worldwide call for a day of action to commemorate our planet on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, encouraging cultural workers to oppose the continuing disappearance of living beings. “The mission is to remind people of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into domains that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Inception of Nature Remembrance

Thus Remember Nature was born, a day when creatives nationwide created responses to the escalating planetary emergency. Jo Joelson, who worked closely with Metzger in his final years, notes his drive for action. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “My advice was – let’s not mess around. Let’s not wait for sponsorship or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

Ten Years On

Ten years later, the initiative hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but supporters think its legacy can still be seen in movements like artist-led declarations and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how makers handle the eco-friendliness of their practices. For this purpose she is restaging it to mark its 10-year anniversary. Among the 18 lead artists involved this time are Yu-Chen Wang and prominent artists. All participants have designed posters, recorded calls to action, and created artworks set to be presented on November 4, 2025.

Sowing Change

Interviewing the artist, she is working outdoors in a rural area, helping plant apple trees that will create a coiled garden. Working with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and somewhat instructive. She describes, the planning and planting sessions have already incorporated learning about mathematics (spacing the planting intervals), genetics (studying the hereditary traits), and geography (researching the stories of how distinct varieties came to the UK).

Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that produces red juice

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

She hoped the children to be more actively aware of the environment and the control 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 what they’re called and the source. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Artistic Responses Throughout Britain

Within the city, Youngsook Choi’s work about extinction will include attendees looking through a major gallery on a mission to find the frozen formations that have been vanished in modern times. Every ice sheet will be illustrated on the museum surfaces using special pens. Whenever one is found, a chime will sound and a recitation will be held to remember that particular glacier.

Meanwhile, up in a northern town, Maddi Nicholson will be hosting a free exhibition about our disconnection from the land, as well as holding a community dinner, made using organic, local produce. In another city, a participant is broadcasting her environmental performance, in which local singers embark on a mission to use music to heal flora in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Children’s Voices

Following this approach, a featured creator will be engaging schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is planning to fill Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in kids’ letters and drawings that capture their aspirations and concerns for the future. “Children’s words and images are powerful because they’re not as restricted as adults’,” she says in her recorded message. “What children have to offer to the world is something distinctive and perhaps it can inspire a awareness of obligation from us all. Kids are unbiased. They have fears about the future. But this shouldn’t be about fear – it should be about hope and us ensuring that they get a future.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Another artist’s work also resonates for children. With a background in performance, his feathered initiative involves illustrating avians and then embodying them – and for Remember Nature day he is planning to represent an iconic figure. He is also conducting a guided walk of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his Pansy Project over the last two decades. That ongoing series started after he experienced multiple occurrences of homophobic abuse on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the site of each occurrence and document it – the project has since grown to include incidents shared by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Apparently birds consume them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

The artist selected the pansy not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a slur – 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 terrible thing,” he says.

The plan on Remember Nature day is to place blooms at new locations and also replant flowers in places he has previously memorialised, all the while conversing with those on the guided walk about the events and his personal experiences. “I’ve recorded quite a few after my previous work,” he says sadly.

Advancing Positively

Harfleet hopes his work – and