Creatives Take a Stand Against the Planetary Crisis: Planting the Fruit That Fell on Newton's Head

In 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger launched one of his final significant endeavors. Known for creating art that erases itself, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting human struggles from anti-nuclear advocacy to ethical eating. Through a short video message, he made a plea for a global day of action to remember nature.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your participation in this global appeal for a day of action to remember nature on 4 November 2015,” he announced, urging artists and creatives to resist the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “The mission is to remind people of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore territories that are inherently creative.”

The Creation of Nature Remembrance

In this way the Nature Remembrance initiative was established, a day when artists across the country developed works to the unfolding climate catastrophe. Jo Joelson, who cared for Metzger in his final years, remembers his sense of urgency. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I urged him – let’s not mess around. We shouldn’t hold back for funding or for anyone to authorize this. Let’s just do it.”

Ten Years On

A decade on, the project may not have triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but supporters think its impact can still be seen in initiatives like Culture Declares and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how artists approach the sustainability of their practices. This is the reason she is restaging it to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Part of the key participants involved this time are Yu-Chen Wang and Anya Gallaccio. All participants have created visual art, shared messages, and created artworks set to be unveiled on November 4, 2025.

Planting Hope

Interviewing the artist, she is working outdoors in the countryside, helping plant apple trees that will create a circular grove. Working with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and somewhat instructive. She describes, the preparation and sowing sessions have already incorporated learning about maths (spacing the planting intervals), science (discussing the genetic makeup), and origins (mapping the journeys of how different apples were introduced to England).

Several the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid

“Several the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid. They all have background narratives. The ancient variety was brought over by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that fell from a tree and struck Isaac Newton’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more consciously engaged of nature and the influence we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was prompting them, when they go shopping, to look on the bag and see the variety and their origin. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Throughout Britain

At the capital, Youngsook Choi’s work about extinction will engage visitors searching Tate Modern on a journey to find the ice masses that have been vanished in modern times. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the museum surfaces using ultraviolet markers. Each discovery, a alert will occur and a performance will be conducted to commemorate that individual formation.

Meanwhile, up in Barrow-in-Furness, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a free exhibition about our disconnection from the land, as well as holding a shared meal, made using regional food. Further north, an artist is streaming her environmental performance, in which local singers undertake a task to perform for vegetation in a green space.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, Cornelia Parker will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is planning to cover Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in youth creations that express their dreams and worries for the tomorrow. “Youthful expressions are impactful because they’re not as trammelled as adults’,” she says in her call to action video. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and perhaps it can stimulate a awareness of obligation from everyone. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. But this shouldn’t be about anxiety – it should be about optimism and us ensuring that they see a better world.”

Memorials and Memory

Another artist’s work also connects with children. As a former drag queen, his avian project involves drawing birds and then dressing up as them – and for Remember Nature day he is intending to address an iconic figure. He is also organizing a walking tour of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the recent decades. That ongoing series began when he endured several events of prejudice on a single day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the site of each occurrence and document it – the project has since spiralled to cover events reported by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “It seems pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

He picked the pansy 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. “People connected it with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The intention on the event day is to plant pansies at additional sites and also renew the tributes in places he has marked earlier, all the while conversing with those on the walking tour about the events and his personal experiences. “We’ve seen quite a few following earlier installations,” he says with regret.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and

Creatives Take a Stand Against the Planetary Crisis: Planting the Fruit That Fell on Newton's Head

The Creation of Nature Remembrance

Ten Years On

Planting Hope

Creative Initiatives Throughout Britain

Children’s Voices

Memorials and Memory

Progressing Optimistically

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