Cultural Figures Take a Stand In the Face of the Environmental Crisis: Cultivating the Apple That Fell on Newton's Head

Back in 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger launched one of his final major projects. Recognized for pioneering self-destructive creations, Metzger had dedicated his life to confronting human struggles from peace activism to plant-based living. Through a short video message, he issued a call for a international event to remember nature.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your engagement in this international summons for a day of action to reflect on the environment on 4 November 2015,” he stated, encouraging artists and creatives to resist the ongoing loss of species. “The mission is to remind people of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so art will enter territories that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Birth of Remember Nature

Thus the environmental art day came into being, a day when creatives nationwide developed works to the ongoing environmental crisis. An organizer, who cared for Metzger in his later life, notes his sense of urgency. “I sensed a strong sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “My advice was – don’t delay. Let’s not wait for funding or for anyone to green light this. Let’s just do it.”

Ten Years On

Ten years later, Remember Nature may not have incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its impact can still be observed in movements like Culture Declares and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how artists approach the sustainability of their practices. This is the reason she is relaunching it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Part of the key participants involved this time are Yu-Chen Wang and Anya Gallaccio. Each has produced imagery, recorded calls to action, and created artworks set to be revealed on 4 November 2025.

Sowing Change

When speaking to the artist, she is on site in Kent, cultivating apple trees that will grow to form a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and half educational workshop. As she explains, the preparation and sowing sessions have already incorporated learning about maths (spacing the gaps in the orchard), science (studying the hereditary traits), and history (tracing the journeys of how various cultivars came to the UK).

Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that releases crimson liquid

“Several the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice. They all have background narratives. The historical cultivar was introduced by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and landed on the scientist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more consciously engaged of the environment and the control we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was prompting them, when they go shopping, to read the label and see the variety and where they were grown. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Throughout Britain

In London, one artist’s project on disappearance will include attendees exploring a major gallery on a journey to find the frozen formations that have been disappeared in recent years. Each glacier will be illustrated on the museum surfaces using ultraviolet markers. Whenever one is found, a bell will ring and a recitation will be performed to honor that specific ice mass.

At the same time, up in another location, Maddi Nicholson will be presenting a open display about our disconnection from the land, as well as hosting a community dinner, cooked from sustainable ingredients. In another city, Uta Kögelsberger is streaming her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers undertake a task to use music to heal flora in a green space.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is hoping to fill a cultural venue in youth creations that express their hopes and fears for the tomorrow. “Kids’ art are impactful because they’re not as inhibited as mature perspectives,” she says in her public appeal. “Young people’s input to the world is something quite unique and it may inspire a sense of responsibility from each person. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But it isn’t meant to be about worry – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they have a tomorrow.”

Memorials and Memory

Another artist’s work also appeals to children. Drawing on past experience, his feathered initiative involves illustrating avians and then embodying them – and for Remember Nature day he is planning to represent a local symbol. He is also organizing a guided walk of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his long-term work over the past twenty years. That ongoing series began when he experienced several events of prejudice on a one occasion. To counter this, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the site of each occurrence and document it – the project has since expanded to include incidents reported 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 ephemeral memorial.”

He picked the bloom not just for the direct association – it has long been a derogatory label – 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 bad quality,” he says.

The intention on 4 November is to sow flowers at fresh spots and also renew the tributes in places he has honored before, all the while conversing with those on the itinerant journey about the incidents and his recollections. “There’s been quite a few since I last planted,” he says mournfully.

Moving Forward with Hope

Harfleet hopes his work – and