Creatives Fight Back In the Face of the Planetary Crisis: Cultivating the Apple That Dropped on Isaac Newton's Head

Back in 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger launched one of his final important works. Recognized for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had dedicated his life to addressing global challenges from peace activism to ethical eating. In a brief video message, he made a plea for a international event to celebrate the natural world.

“I call upon you for your engagement in this global appeal for a day of action to reflect on the environment on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, inviting cultural workers to resist the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “Our responsibility is to help the public recall of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into realms that are naturally imaginative.”

The Inception of Environmental Reflection

Thus the Nature Remembrance initiative was established, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain produced pieces to the escalating planetary emergency. One of the curators, who supported Metzger in his last days, notes his sense of urgency. “There was a profound sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “My advice was – let’s not mess around. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to approve this. Take action immediately.”

After Ten Years

After ten years, Remember Nature did not incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but Joelson believes its impact can still be observed in campaigns like cultural advocacy groups and climate activism networks, as well as in how makers handle the eco-friendliness of their methods. This is the reason she is reviving it to mark its decade milestone. Part of the featured creators involved this time are Yu-Chen Wang and other notable figures. They have all designed posters, made video appeals, and produced installations set to be presented on 4 November 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

When speaking to one participant, she is working outdoors in the countryside, helping plant apple trees that will grow to form a coiled garden. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and somewhat instructive. According to her, the preparation and sowing sessions have already included learning about mathematics (spacing the distances between trees), genetics (studying the apple’s DNA), and geography (mapping the stories of how different apples came to the UK).

A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that produces crimson liquid

“A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that produces red juice. Every one carries histories attached. The decio apple was brought over by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that dropped off a tree and struck Isaac Newton’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more consciously engaged of the natural world and the influence we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was prompting them, next time they were out, to check the packaging and see the variety and their origin. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Nationwide

In London, Youngsook Choi’s Book of Loss will involve participants exploring a major gallery on a quest to find the seven major glaciers that have been disappeared in modern times. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the exhibition spaces using special pens. Each discovery, a chime will sound and a reading will be held to commemorate that individual formation.

Meanwhile, up in a northern town, an artist will be hosting a free exhibition about our disconnection from the land, as well as holding a community dinner, cooked from organic, local produce. Further north, a participant is sharing her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers begin a project to use music to heal flora in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Children’s Voices

Similar to other artists, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is hoping to cover an art space in kids’ letters and drawings that express their aspirations and concerns for the tomorrow. “Children’s words and images are compelling because they’re not as inhibited as mature perspectives,” she says in her recorded message. “What children have to offer to the world is something distinctive and it may provoke a awareness of obligation from each person. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. But it isn’t meant to be about fear – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they get a future.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Another artist’s work also connects with children. Drawing on past experience, his Birds Can Fly involves illustrating avians and then performing as birds – and for Remember Nature day he is intending to represent Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also staging a guided walk of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the past twenty years. That ongoing series began when he experienced multiple occurrences of homophobic abuse on a one occasion. To counter this, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the site of each occurrence and photograph it – the project has since grown to cover events shared by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly birds consume them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

He picked the flower not just for the direct association – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The project on Remember Nature day is to sow flowers at additional sites and also replant flowers in places he has marked earlier, all the while conversing with those on the walking tour about the occurrences and his memories of them. “We’ve seen quite a few after my previous work,” he says sadly.

Moving Forward with Hope

Harfleet hopes his work – and