Exploring the Aroma of Apprehension: The Sámi Artist Revamps The Gallery's Exhibition Space with Arctic Deer Inspired Artwork

Guests to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unexpected experiences in its vast Turbine Hall. They have sunbathed under an simulated sun, glided down amusement rides, and witnessed automated sea creatures floating through the air. But this marks the inaugural time they will be engaging themselves in the intricate nose chambers of a reindeer. The newest artist commission for this immense space—designed by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes visitors into a winding structure modeled after the enlarged inside of a reindeer's nose passages. Inside, they can wander around or chill out on pelts, tuning in on headphones to Sámi elders sharing stories and knowledge.

The Significance of the Nose

Why choose the nasal structure? It may appear playful, but the installation pays tribute to a rarely recognized natural marvel: scientists have discovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the ambient air it inhales by 80°C, helping the creature to endure in extreme Arctic conditions. Scaling the nose to larger than human size, Sara notes, "creates a feeling of smallness that you as a individual are not in control over nature." Sara is a ex- journalist, young adult author, and environmental activist, who hails from a reindeer-herding family in northern Norway. "Possibly that fosters the possibility to alter your outlook or trigger some modesty," she adds.

A Tribute to Traditional Ways

The maze-like installation is among various elements in Sara's absorbing art project showcasing the heritage, science, and beliefs of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Partially migratory, the Sámi number approximately 100,000 people distributed across the Norwegian north, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Kola region (an area they call Sápmi). They have experienced oppression, cultural suppression, and repression of their language by all four countries. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the heart of the Sámi cosmology and origin tale, the installation also draws attention to the community's struggles relating to the environmental emergency, land dispossession, and imperialism.

Metaphor in Components

On the extended access slope, there's a towering, 26-metre sculpture of skins ensnared by utility lines. It serves as a analogy for the political and economic systems constraining the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part heavenly staircase, this component of the artwork, titled Goavve-, points to the Sámi name for an extreme weather phenomenon, whereby dense coatings of ice appear as changing weather thaw and solidify again the snow, trapping the reindeers' main winter nourishment, moss. Goavvi is a result of planetary warming, which is taking place up to much more rapidly in the Arctic than globally.

Three years ago, I traveled to see Sara in the Norwegian far north during a severe cold period and accompanied Sámi reindeer keepers on their snowmobiles in biting cold as they transported trailers of animal nutrition on to the barren Arctic plains to provide manually. The reindeer gathered round us, digging the icy ground in futility for lichen-covered bits. This costly and labour-intensive method is having a drastic effect on herding practices—and on the animals' independence. Yet the choice is starvation. As goavvi winters become frequent, reindeer are succumbing—a number from starvation, others drowning after falling into water bodies through thinning ice sheets. To some extent, the installation is a monument to them. "With the layering of elements, in a way I'm introducing the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Diverging Worldviews

This artwork also emphasizes the stark contrast between the modern understanding of power as a commodity to be exploited for gain and survival and the Sámi outlook of energy as an innate life force in animals, humans, and land. Tate Modern's legacy as a coal and oil power station is linked with this, as is what the Sámi see as green colonialism by Nordic countries. While attempting to be exemplars for sustainable power, Scandinavian countries have disagreed with the Sámi over the building of wind energy projects, hydroelectric dams, and digging operations on their traditional territory; the Sámi assert their legal protections, livelihoods, and traditions are threatened. "It's challenging being such a small minority to stand your ground when the justifications are grounded in environmental protection," Sara notes. "Resource exploitation has adopted the language of sustainability, but yet it's just striving to find more suitable ways to continue patterns of expenditure."

Family Challenges

She and her family have personally clashed with the state authorities over its ever-stricter policies on herding. In 2016, Sara's sibling undertook a series of ultimately unsuccessful court actions over the required reduction of his herd, supposedly to stop overgrazing. As a show of solidarity, Sara created a four-year collection of artworks titled Pile O'Sápmi including a massive curtain of numerous reindeer skulls, which was shown at the the event Documenta 14 and later purchased by the public gallery, where it resides in the entrance.

The Role of Art in Activism

For many Sámi, art appears the only realm in which they can be understood by outsiders. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|