Artists Fight Back In the Face of the Climate Emergency: Sowing the Apple That Fell on Newton's Head

During 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger launched one of his final significant endeavors. Famed for pioneering auto-destructive art, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting societal issues from peace activism to ethical eating. Through a short video message, he requested support for a global day of action to celebrate the natural world.

“I call upon you for your involvement in this worldwide call for a day of action to reflect on the environment on 4 November 2015,” he declared, inviting makers and thinkers to resist the continuing disappearance of species. “Our responsibility is to make audiences aware of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so art will enter realms that are naturally imaginative.”

The Birth of Nature Remembrance

And so Remember Nature was established, a day when creatives nationwide created responses to the escalating planetary emergency. One of the curators, who supported Metzger in his last days, recalls his sense of urgency. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “My advice was – we must act now. Let’s not wait for sponsorship or for anyone to green light this. Take action immediately.”

After Ten Years

A decade on, the initiative did not incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but Joelson believes its legacy can still be seen in campaigns like artist-led declarations and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how artists approach the sustainability of their work. This is the reason she is reviving it to mark its decade milestone. Part of the featured creators involved this time are Cornelia Parker and prominent artists. Each has created visual art, recorded calls to action, and developed pieces set to be revealed on the fourth of November next year.

Sowing Change

When speaking to the artist, she is working outdoors in Kent, helping plant apple trees that will develop into a coiled garden. Working with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and half educational workshop. As she explains, the planning and planting sessions have already incorporated learning about mathematics (spacing the distances between trees), genetics (discussing the genetic makeup), and origins (mapping the backgrounds of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

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

“A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties,” she explains. “We have one apple that produces scarlet-colored sap. They all have stories behind them. The decio apple 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 thoughtfully connected of nature and the influence we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, when they go shopping, to check the packaging and see their names and where they were grown. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Artistic Responses Across the Country

At the capital, one artist’s work about extinction will engage visitors looking through an art institution on a mission to find the ice masses that have been disappeared in recent years. Every ice sheet will be drawn on the museum surfaces using special pens. Whenever one is found, a alert will occur and a reading will be held to remember that individual formation.

Elsewhere, up in Barrow-in-Furness, a creative will be presenting a public show about our separation from nature, as well as holding a community dinner, prepared with organic, local produce. In another city, Uta Kögelsberger is broadcasting her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which local singers begin a project to sing plants back to health in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Children’s Voices

Similar to other artists, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is aiming to fill a cultural venue in youth creations that capture their aspirations and concerns for the years ahead. “Kids’ art are compelling because they’re not as inhibited as mature perspectives,” she says in her call to action video. “The contributions of youth to the world is something truly special and hopefully it will stimulate a feeling of duty from each person. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But it isn’t meant to be about anxiety – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they see a better world.”

Remembrance and Reflection

A participant’s work also connects with children. With a background in performance, his feathered initiative involves drawing birds and then embodying them – and for the initiative he is aiming to address Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also conducting a walking tour of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his long-term work over the recent decades. This endeavor started after he endured three incidents of homophobic abuse on a single day. In response, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the site of each occurrence and photograph it – the project has since expanded to include incidents reported by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly birds consume them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

The artist selected the bloom not just for the direct association – it has long been a slur – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The intention on 4 November is to plant pansies at fresh spots and also replant flowers in places he has previously memorialised, all the while talking to those on the guided walk about the occurrences and his memories of them. “I’ve recorded quite a few following earlier installations,” he says mournfully.

Advancing Positively

He desires his work – and