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

Back in 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his ultimate major projects. Known for introducing self-destructive creations, Metzger had dedicated his life to confronting global challenges from anti-nuclear advocacy to vegetarianism. In a brief video message, he requested support for a international event to remember nature.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your engagement in this international summons for a day of action to commemorate our planet on 4 November 2015,” he announced, encouraging makers and thinkers to stand against the ongoing loss of living beings. “The mission is to make audiences aware of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Birth of Nature Remembrance

Thus the Nature Remembrance initiative was established, a day when artists across the country created responses to the ongoing environmental crisis. Jo Joelson, who worked closely with Metzger in his last days, remembers his sense of urgency. “He had a strong sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – let’s not mess around. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to authorize this. We should proceed.”

Ten Years On

After ten years, Remember Nature did not triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but organizers feel its impact can still be observed in campaigns like Culture Declares and climate activism networks, as well as in how creatives consider the sustainability of their work. This is the reason she is restaging it to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. Included in the featured creators involved this time are Cornelia Parker and other notable figures. All participants have produced imagery, shared messages, and developed pieces set to be unveiled on 4 November 2025.

Sowing Change

In conversation with Anya Gallaccio, she is on site in a rural area, helping plant apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and part learning experience. As she explains, the design and cultivation sessions have already involved learning about maths (calculating the gaps in the orchard), biology (discussing the apple’s DNA), and origins (tracing the backgrounds of how various cultivars came to the UK).

Several the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that releases scarcolored sap

“Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill,” she explains. “We have one apple that releases scarlet-colored sap. They all have stories behind them. The decio apple was introduced by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and struck Isaac Newton’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more actively aware of the environment and the control we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, when they go shopping, to look on the bag and see their names and where they were grown. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Cultural Projects Across the Country

At the capital, a participant’s work about extinction will involve participants exploring a major gallery on a journey to find the frozen formations that have been disappeared in the past decade. All formations will be drawn on the museum surfaces using ultraviolet markers. Each discovery, a bell will ring and a reading will be conducted to commemorate that specific ice mass.

Elsewhere, up in a northern town, an artist will be presenting a free exhibition about our alienation from the environment, as well as organizing a shared meal, made using regional food. In another city, an artist is sharing her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers embark on a mission to perform for vegetation in a green space.

Children’s Voices

Following this approach, Cornelia Parker will be engaging schoolchildren – on the actual event she is aiming to fill Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in youth creations that document their dreams and worries for the tomorrow. “Kids’ art are powerful because they’re not as restricted as grown-ups’,” she says in her recorded message. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and perhaps it can inspire a sense of responsibility from everyone. Youth is pure. They have fears about the future. But it isn’t meant to be about anxiety – it should be about hope and us ensuring that they get a future.”

Memorials and Memory

Another artist’s work also resonates for children. With a background in performance, his avian project involves illustrating avians and then embodying them – and for the initiative he is planning to tackle a local symbol. He is also organizing a itinerant journey of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his ongoing series over the recent decades. This endeavor began when he endured three incidents of homophobic abuse on a particular day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the site of each occurrence and photograph it – the project has since grown to incorporate experiences reported by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “It seems pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

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

The plan on 4 November is to place blooms at new locations and also replant flowers in places he has honored before, all the while conversing with those on the guided walk about the incidents and his personal experiences. “We’ve seen quite a few since I last planted,” he says sadly.

Moving Forward with Hope

Harfleet hopes his work – and