Artists Respond Against the Planetary Crisis: Sowing the Apple That Fell on Isaac Newton's Head

In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his final significant endeavors. Known for creating art that erases itself, Metzger had dedicated his life to addressing human struggles from nuclear disarmament to vegetarianism. Through a short video message, he made a plea for a worldwide initiative to remember nature.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your participation in this worldwide call for a day of action to commemorate our planet on November 4th, 2015,” he stated, urging artists and creatives to stand against the continuing disappearance of living beings. “Our responsibility is to make audiences aware of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so art will enter realms that are naturally imaginative.”

The Creation of Remember Nature

In this way the environmental art day was born, a day when creatives nationwide created responses to the escalating planetary emergency. Jo Joelson, who cared for Metzger in his last days, remembers his feeling of immediacy. “There was a profound sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “I just said – let’s not mess around. No need to pause for financial support or for anyone to green light this. Take action immediately.”

Ten Years On

After ten years, Remember Nature did not sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its legacy can still be felt in movements like Culture Declares and environmental protests, as well as in how creatives consider the sustainability of their practices. This is the reason she is relaunching it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Included in the featured creators involved this time are Yu-Chen Wang and Anya Gallaccio. Each has produced imagery, made video appeals, and produced installations set to be unveiled on 4 November 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

When speaking to the artist, she is out in a field in a rural area, cultivating apple trees that will develop into a coiled garden. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and part learning experience. As she explains, the planning and planting sessions have already involved learning about maths (measuring out the gaps in the orchard), genetics (studying the genetic makeup), and history (mapping the stories of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarcolored sap

“Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher,” she explains. “We have one apple that produces scarlet-colored sap. They all have background narratives. The historical cultivar was imported by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that descended from a tree and landed on Isaac Newton’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more actively aware of nature and the power we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was urging them, on their next shopping trip, to read the label and see their names and where they were grown. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Cultural Projects Across the Country

Within the city, Youngsook Choi’s work about extinction will include attendees looking through an art institution on a mission to find the frozen formations that have been lost in modern times. Every ice sheet will be drawn on the museum surfaces using invisible ink. Each discovery, a bell will ring and a reading will be held to commemorate that individual formation.

Elsewhere, up in Barrow-in-Furness, an artist will be hosting a free exhibition about our disconnection from the land, as well as hosting a communal feast, prepared with sustainable ingredients. In another city, a participant is streaming her environmental performance, in which regional performers undertake a task to perform for vegetation in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Young Insights

Similar to other artists, Cornelia Parker will be engaging schoolchildren – on the day itself she is planning to decorate Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in youth creations that capture their hopes and fears for the future. “Youthful expressions are powerful because they’re not as trammelled as adults’,” she says in her call to action video. “What children have to offer to the world is something quite unique and hopefully it will inspire a awareness of obligation from each person. Youth is pure. They have anxieties about what’s next. But this shouldn’t be about anxiety – it should be about positivity and making sure that they get a future.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Another artist’s work also appeals to children. With a background in performance, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for the event he is planning to tackle Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also conducting a itinerant journey of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his ongoing series over the recent decades. This endeavor began when he experienced multiple occurrences of prejudice on a particular day. In response, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the spot where it happened and document it – the project has since spiralled to cover events experienced by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Apparently wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

Harfleet chose the flower not just for the clear connection – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The plan on 4 November is to sow flowers at new locations and also replant flowers in places he has honored before, all the while talking to those on the walking tour about the events and his memories of them. “I’ve recorded quite a few since I last planted,” he says with regret.

Progressing Optimistically

Harfleet hopes his work – and