Creatives Respond Against the Climate Emergency: Sowing the Fruit That Fell on Newton's Head

In 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger initiated one of his ultimate important works. Recognized for pioneering auto-destructive art, Metzger had dedicated his life to responding to global challenges from nuclear disarmament to vegetarianism. Via a concise video message, he issued a call for a international event to honor the environment.

“I call upon you for your participation in this worldwide call for a day of action to reflect on the environment on November 4th, 2015,” he declared, encouraging artists and creatives to stand against the ongoing loss of species. “The mission is to help the public recall of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into realms that are inherently creative.”

The Inception of Environmental Reflection

In this way the Nature Remembrance initiative was established, a day when creatives nationwide created responses to the unfolding climate catastrophe. An organizer, who supported Metzger in his final years, remembers his drive for action. “There was a profound sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I urged him – we must act now. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to green light this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

Ten years later, the project hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its impact can still be felt in movements like artist-led declarations and environmental protests, as well as in how creatives consider the eco-friendliness of their methods. For this purpose she is relaunching it to mark its decade milestone. Included in the key participants participating now are Cornelia Parker and Anya Gallaccio. All participants have produced imagery, recorded calls to action, and created artworks set to be revealed on the fourth of November next year.

Planting Hope

Interviewing one participant, she is on site in Kent, assisting with planting apple trees that will create a spiral-shaped orchard. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and somewhat instructive. According to her, the preparation and sowing sessions have already included learning about mathematics (spacing the planting intervals), biology (studying the genetic makeup), and history (tracing the backgrounds of how various cultivars came to the UK).

Several the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that produces scarcolored sap

“A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice. Every one carries stories behind them. The historical cultivar was introduced by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and landed on Isaac Newton’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more actively aware of the natural world and the power we have over it. “To many 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 the variety and the source. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Artistic Responses Nationwide

At the capital, one artist’s work about extinction will engage visitors looking through a major gallery on a mission to find the seven major glaciers that have been disappeared in recent years. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the exhibition spaces using special pens. When located, a chime will sound and a reading will be performed to commemorate that individual formation.

Meanwhile, up in a northern town, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a free exhibition about our alienation from the environment, as well as hosting a community dinner, prepared with regional food. Over in Newcastle, 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.

Children’s Voices

Similar to other artists, Cornelia Parker will be working with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is aiming to cover an art space in children’s artwork that express their hopes and fears for the future. “Children’s words and images are compelling because they’re not as restricted as mature perspectives,” she says in her call to action video. “The contributions of youth to the world is something quite unique and it may provoke a awareness of obligation from us all. Children are innocent. They have concerns for tomorrow. But let’s not make it about worry – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they have a tomorrow.”

Memorials and Memory

Another artist’s work also connects with children. As a former drag queen, his Birds Can Fly involves sketching winged creatures and then dressing up as them – and for Remember Nature day he is aiming to tackle an iconic figure. He is also organizing a itinerant journey of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his long-term work over the recent decades. This endeavor began when he faced three incidents of prejudice on a one occasion. To counter this, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the spot where it happened and record it – the project has since spiralled to cover events shared by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

The artist selected the bloom 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 thoughtful, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The project on Remember Nature day is to place blooms at new locations and also renew the tributes in places he has previously memorialised, all the while talking to those on the walking tour about the incidents and his memories of them. “There’s been quite a few following earlier installations,” he says sadly.

Advancing Positively

Harfleet hopes his work – and