Unveiling the Scent of Fear: The Sámi Artist Transforms The Gallery's Exhibition Space with Arctic Deer Themed Exhibit

Visitors to Tate Modern are used to unusual experiences in its spacious Turbine Hall. They've basked under an man-made sun, descended down spiral slides, and seen robotic jellyfish drifting through the air. However this marks the first time they will be immersing themselves in the intricate nasal cavities of a reindeer. The newest artistic project for this cavernous space—designed by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes gallerygoers into a labyrinthine construction based on the expanded inside of a reindeer's nose airways. Inside, they can wander around or relax on reindeer hides, tuning in on earphones to Sámi elders telling tales and knowledge.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why choose the nasal structure? It could sound quirky, but the exhibit celebrates a rarely recognized biological feat: experts have uncovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the surrounding air it inhales by 80 degrees celsius, allowing the animal to endure in extreme Arctic climates. Scaling the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara explains, "creates a perception of insignificance that you as a person are not dominant over nature." She is a ex- writer, children's author, and environmental activist, who comes from a pastoral family in northern Norway. "Maybe that fosters the possibility to change your outlook or evoke some modesty," she states.

An Homage to Sámi Culture

The winding structure is part of a features in Sara's absorbing art project showcasing the culture, understanding, and beliefs of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Partially migratory, the Sámi number roughly 100,000 people ranged across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an region they call Sápmi). They've experienced discrimination, cultural suppression, and eradication of their language by all four states. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the center of the Sámi mythology and origin tale, the work also highlights the people's issues associated with the environmental emergency, property rights, and imperialism.

Symbolism in Elements

Along the extended access ramp, there's a looming, eighty-five-foot sculpture of skins trapped by utility lines. It can be read as a metaphor for the societal frameworks constraining the Sámi. Part pylon, part heavenly staircase, this section of the installation, named Goavve-, relates to the Sámi word for an extreme weather phenomenon, whereby solid layers of ice appear as varying temperatures liquefy and solidify again the snow, locking in the reindeers' primary cold-season food, lichen. This phenomenon is a outcome of climate change, which is taking place up to much more rapidly in the Arctic than in other regions.

Previously, I traveled to see Sara in the Norwegian far north during a icy season and accompanied Sámi reindeer keepers on their Arctic vehicles in freezing temperatures as they hauled containers of food pellets on to the exposed Arctic plains to distribute manually. These animals gathered round us, scratching the icy ground in futility for vegetative bits. This expensive and demanding procedure is having a drastic influence on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. However the alternative is malnutrition. When such conditions become routine, reindeer are succumbing—a number from hunger, others suffocating after plunging into water bodies through thinning ice sheets. In a sense, the installation is a tribute to them. "By overlapping of materials, in a way I'm transporting the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Perspectives

The installation also underscores the stark difference between the industrial view of power as a resource to be utilized for profit and existence and the Sámi philosophy of energy as an inherent power in creatures, humans, and nature. This venue's past as a industrial facility is connected to this, as is what the Sámi view as green colonialism by Nordic countries. In their efforts to be leaders for clean sources, Scandinavian countries have clashed with the Sámi over the construction of turbine fields, river barriers, and mines on their ancestral land; the Sámi argue their fundamental freedoms, livelihoods, and way of life are at risk. "It's very difficult being such a limited population to defend yourself when the arguments are grounded in saving the world," Sara notes. "Extractivism has co-opted the discourse of sustainability, but nonetheless it's just aiming to find better ways to continue habits of use."

Family Struggles

Sara and her relatives have personally conflicted with the national administration over its increasingly stringent rules on animal husbandry. In 2016, Sara's sibling undertook a set of finally failed court actions over the forced culling of his animals, apparently to stop overgrazing. In support, Sara created a multi-year set of creations named Pile O'Sápmi featuring a massive screen of four hundred reindeer skulls, which was displayed at the 2017's show Documenta 14 and later purchased by the public gallery, where it is displayed in the entrance.

Art as Awareness

Among the community, visual expression seems the sole domain in which they can be listened to by outsiders. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|