Creatives Fight Back Against the Environmental Crisis: Cultivating the Apple That Fell on Newton's Head

Back in 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger initiated one of his final significant endeavors. Recognized for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting human struggles from anti-nuclear advocacy to vegetarianism. In a brief video message, he issued a call for a international event to celebrate the natural world.

“This is my appeal for your participation in this international summons for a day of action to remember nature on November 4th, 2015,” he declared, inviting artists and creatives to resist the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “Our responsibility is to remind people of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so art will enter domains that are naturally imaginative.”

The Creation of Nature Remembrance

Thus the Nature Remembrance initiative was born, a day when creatives nationwide produced pieces to the unfolding climate catastrophe. One of the curators, who cared for Metzger in his last days, notes his feeling of immediacy. “There was a profound sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – let’s not mess around. We shouldn’t hold back for financial support or for anyone to authorize this. We should proceed.”

A Decade Later

After ten years, the initiative did not incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but Joelson believes its legacy can still be seen in initiatives like artist-led declarations and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how artists approach the sustainability of their work. That’s why she is restaging it to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. Among the 18 lead artists participating now are A Man Called Adam and other notable figures. Each has created visual art, shared messages, and created artworks set to be presented on 4 November 2025.

Planting Hope

In conversation with the artist, she is out in a field in a rural area, assisting with planting apple trees that will create a spiral-shaped orchard. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and half educational workshop. As she explains, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about maths (spacing the distances between trees), science (studying the apple’s DNA), and geography (tracing the journeys of how various cultivars were introduced to England).

A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice

“A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that produces red juice. Every one carries stories behind them. The ancient variety was brought over by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that dropped off a tree and landed on Isaac Newton’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more actively aware of the environment and the power we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, on their next shopping trip, to check the packaging and see their names and their origin. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Cultural Projects Across the Country

At the capital, Youngsook Choi’s Book of Loss will involve participants looking through a major gallery on a quest to find the seven major glaciers that have been lost in the past decade. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the gallery’s windows and walls using ultraviolet markers. When located, a alert will occur and a recitation will be held to honor that individual formation.

Meanwhile, up in Barrow-in-Furness, an artist will be hosting a free exhibition about our alienation from the environment, as well as holding a communal feast, cooked from sustainable ingredients. In another city, an artist is streaming her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers embark on a mission to perform for vegetation in a green space.

Young Insights

Like Gallaccio, another participant will be working with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is planning to decorate Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in children’s artwork that capture their dreams and worries for the years ahead. “Kids’ art are impactful because they’re not as inhibited as mature perspectives,” she says in her public appeal. “The contributions of youth to the world is something quite unique and hopefully it will inspire a feeling of duty from us all. Youth is pure. They have anxieties about what’s next. But this shouldn’t be about fear – it should be about positivity and us ensuring that they see a better world.”

Memorials and Memory

Paul Harfleet’s work also connects with children. As a former drag queen, his avian project involves illustrating avians and then dressing up as them – and for Remember Nature day he is aiming to address a local symbol. He is also staging a guided walk of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his Pansy Project over the recent decades. The project started after he endured three incidents of prejudice on a single day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since spiralled to incorporate experiences reported by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Apparently birds consume them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

Harfleet chose the bloom not just for the clear connection – it has long been a slur – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The plan on 4 November is to plant pansies at additional sites and also refresh the memorials in places he has previously memorialised, all the while discussing with those on the itinerant journey about the events and his memories of them. “We’ve seen quite a few since I last planted,” he says with regret.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and