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

Back in 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his ultimate important works. Known for pioneering art that erases itself, Metzger had spent a lifetime to confronting human struggles from anti-nuclear advocacy to vegetarianism. Via a concise video message, he made a plea for a global day of action to celebrate the natural world.

“This is my appeal for your participation in this worldwide call for a day of action to commemorate our planet on 4 November 2015,” he announced, inviting cultural workers to resist the ongoing loss of flora and fauna. “The mission is to help the public recall of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so art will enter realms that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Creation of Remember Nature

In this way Remember Nature was established, a day when creatives nationwide developed works to the ongoing environmental crisis. Jo Joelson, who supported Metzger in his later life, notes his drive for action. “He had a strong sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “I urged him – we must act now. We shouldn’t hold back for financial support or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

After Ten Years

Ten years later, the project may not have sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but organizers feel its influence can still be observed in movements like cultural advocacy groups and environmental protests, as well as in how makers handle the eco-friendliness of their methods. This is the reason she is relaunching it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Included in the 18 lead artists involved this time are Cornelia Parker and prominent artists. They have all created visual art, shared messages, and developed pieces set to be revealed on 4 November 2025.

Sowing Change

In conversation with one participant, she is working outdoors in the countryside, cultivating apple trees that will grow to form a spiral-shaped orchard. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and half educational workshop. According to her, the planning and planting sessions have already included learning about maths (spacing the planting intervals), science (studying the hereditary traits), and history (researching the backgrounds of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarcolored sap

“Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid. They all have histories attached. The historical cultivar was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and landed on the physicist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more actively aware of the natural world and the influence we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was urging them, when they go shopping, to read the label and see their names and where they were grown. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Cultural Projects Across the Country

In London, one artist’s work about extinction will involve participants searching a major gallery on a quest to find the seven major glaciers that have been disappeared in modern times. All formations will be drawn on the exhibition spaces using invisible ink. 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 a northern town, an artist will be hosting a free exhibition about our alienation from the environment, as well as holding a shared meal, made using organic, local produce. In another city, Uta Kögelsberger is broadcasting her musical project, in which community vocalists begin a project to perform for vegetation in a green space.

Children’s Voices

Similar to other artists, a featured creator will be engaging schoolchildren – on the day itself she is planning to fill Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in youth creations that document their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Kids’ art are impactful 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 truly special and perhaps it can inspire a awareness of obligation from us all. Children are innocent. They have fears about the future. But this shouldn’t be about worry – it should be about optimism and our responsibility that they have a tomorrow.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Another artist’s work also connects with children. With a background in performance, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for the event he is aiming to represent a local symbol. He is also organizing a itinerant journey of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the past twenty years. This endeavor started after he faced several events of homophobic abuse on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the site of each occurrence 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 ephemeral memorial.”

The artist selected the pansy not just for the clear connection – it has long been a slur – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The plan on Remember Nature day is to plant pansies at additional sites and also renew the tributes in places he has marked earlier, all the while discussing with those on the walking tour about the occurrences and his memories of them. “I’ve recorded quite a few since I last planted,” he says sadly.

Progressing Optimistically

Harfleet hopes his work – and