Cultural Figures Take a Stand Against the Planetary Crisis: Planting the Apple That Dropped on Isaac Newton's Head

In 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger initiated one of his last significant endeavors. Famed for pioneering art that erases itself, Metzger had devoted his career to responding to global challenges from peace activism to vegetarianism. Through a short video message, he requested support for a international event to honor the environment.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your engagement in this global appeal for a day of action to commemorate our planet on the fourth of November, 2015,” he stated, urging cultural workers to stand against the ongoing loss of flora and fauna. “Our responsibility is to remind people of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so art will enter realms that are naturally imaginative.”

The Inception of Remember Nature

In this way the environmental art day was born, a day when artists across the country produced pieces to the escalating planetary emergency. One of the curators, who cared for Metzger in his last days, remembers his drive for action. “He had a great sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I just said – we must act now. Let’s not wait for funding or for anyone to approve this. Take action immediately.”

A Decade Later

After ten years, Remember Nature may not have incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but organizers feel its influence can still be felt in initiatives like Culture Declares and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how makers handle the eco-friendliness of their work. This is the reason she is restaging it to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. Part of the 18 lead artists involved this time are A Man Called Adam and Anya Gallaccio. All participants have produced imagery, shared messages, and produced installations set to be unveiled on 4 November 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

Interviewing Anya Gallaccio, she is on site in the countryside, assisting with planting apple trees that will grow to form a spiral-shaped orchard. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and somewhat instructive. She describes, the planning and planting sessions have already included learning about measurements (calculating the planting intervals), biology (exploring the hereditary traits), and history (tracing the backgrounds of how various cultivars came to the UK).

Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice

“A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher,” she explains. “We have one apple that produces crimson liquid. Every one carries histories attached. The historical cultivar was brought over by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that descended from a tree and struck the physicist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more consciously engaged of the natural world and the power we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was prompting them, when they go shopping, to check the packaging and see the variety and the source. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Nationwide

At the capital, a participant’s project on disappearance will engage visitors looking through a major gallery on a journey to find the ice masses that have been vanished in the past decade. Every ice sheet will be drawn on the exhibition spaces using ultraviolet markers. When located, a alert will occur and a reading will be held to honor that specific ice mass.

Elsewhere, up in Barrow-in-Furness, a creative will be hosting a public show about our separation from nature, as well as hosting a communal feast, made using sustainable ingredients. In another city, an artist is streaming her environmental performance, in which local singers undertake a task to perform for vegetation in a local park.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, another participant will be engaging schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is aiming to fill Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in kids’ letters and drawings that express their dreams and worries for the future. “Kids’ art are impactful because they’re not as inhibited as adults’,” she says in her public appeal. “Young people’s input to the world is something quite unique and it may provoke a awareness of obligation from each person. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But this shouldn’t be about worry – it should be about optimism and our responsibility that they get a future.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Another artist’s work also connects with children. As a former drag queen, his Birds Can Fly involves illustrating avians and then embodying them – and for the event he is planning to tackle a local symbol. He is also conducting a itinerant journey of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his ongoing series over the last two decades. That ongoing series commenced following he faced several events of discrimination on a one occasion. In response, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the site of each occurrence and photograph it – the project has since spiralled to include incidents experienced by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “It seems birds consume them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

Harfleet chose the bloom not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a slur – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The project on 4 November is to sow flowers at fresh spots and also renew the tributes in places he has honored before, all the while conversing with those on the walking tour about the events and his recollections. “There’s been quite a few following earlier installations,” he says sadly.

Advancing Positively

The artist wishes his work – and