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During 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his ultimate major projects. Known for introducing self-destructive creations, Metzger had dedicated his life to confronting human struggles from anti-nuclear advocacy to plant-based living. Via a concise video message, he issued a call for a international event to celebrate the natural world.

“This is my appeal for your engagement in this global appeal for a day of action to remember nature on 4 November 2015,” he stated, encouraging cultural workers to oppose the ongoing loss of flora and fauna. “Our responsibility is to help the public recall of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore domains that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Inception of Environmental Reflection

And so the environmental art day came into being, a day when creatives nationwide produced pieces to the unfolding climate catastrophe. Jo Joelson, who supported Metzger in his final years, notes his feeling of immediacy. “There was a strong sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “My advice was – let’s not mess around. Let’s not wait for sponsorship or for anyone to authorize this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

After ten years, the initiative hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but Joelson believes its legacy can still be seen in campaigns like cultural advocacy groups and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how artists approach the eco-friendliness of their methods. This is the reason she is restaging it to celebrate its decade milestone. Part of the key participants participating now are Cornelia Parker and other notable figures. Each has produced imagery, recorded calls to action, and created artworks set to be presented on November 4, 2025.

Sowing Change

When speaking to the artist, she is working outdoors in the countryside, cultivating apple trees that will create a coiled garden. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and half educational workshop. She describes, the preparation and sowing sessions have already involved learning about mathematics (measuring out the distances between trees), science (exploring the hereditary traits), and history (tracing the journeys of how different apples came to the UK).

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

“Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties,” she explains. “We have one apple that produces crimson liquid. Every one carries background narratives. The ancient variety was introduced by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and hit the physicist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more actively aware of the natural world and the power we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, next time they were out, to check the packaging and see the variety and where they were grown. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Artistic Responses Nationwide

In London, one artist’s work about extinction will include attendees looking through an art institution on a mission to find the ice masses that have been vanished in recent years. All formations will be drawn on the museum surfaces using special pens. Each discovery, a bell will ring and a recitation will be performed to honor that particular glacier.

Meanwhile, up in a northern town, an artist will be presenting a free exhibition about our alienation from the environment, as well as organizing a community dinner, made using organic, local produce. In another city, an artist is sharing her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which local singers begin a project to sing plants back to health in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Children’s Voices

Following this approach, another participant will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is aiming to decorate a cultural venue in children’s artwork that document their aspirations and concerns for the future. “Kids’ art are powerful because they’re not as inhibited as grown-ups’,” she says in her public appeal. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and hopefully it will inspire a feeling of duty from everyone. Kids are unbiased. They have concerns for tomorrow. But it isn’t meant to be about fear – it should be about optimism and making sure that they have a tomorrow.”

Remembrance and Reflection

A participant’s work also appeals to children. With a background in performance, his feathered initiative involves sketching winged creatures and then performing as birds – and for the event he is planning to tackle an iconic figure. He is also organizing a guided walk of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his ongoing series over the last two decades. This endeavor began when he endured three incidents of discrimination on a single day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the spot where it happened and photograph it – the project has since expanded to cover events shared by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

He picked the flower not just for the direct association – 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 thoughtful, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The plan on 4 November is to sow flowers at fresh spots and also refresh the memorials in places he has previously memorialised, all the while conversing with those on the itinerant journey about the occurrences and his personal experiences. “We’ve seen quite a few following earlier installations,” he says with regret.

Moving Forward with Hope

He desires his work – and