Unveiling the Smell of Apprehension: The Sámi Artist Reimagines The Gallery's Exhibition Space with Reindeer Themed Exhibit

Guests to the renowned gallery are familiar to unexpected experiences in its expansive Turbine Hall. They have relaxed under an artificial sun, glided down spiral slides, and seen robotic sea creatures hovering through the air. But this marks the first time they will be venturing themselves in the intricate nasal passages of a reindeer. The current artist commission for this huge space—created by Indigenous Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites visitors into a winding structure modeled after the scaled-up inside of a reindeer's nasal passages. Upon entering, they can meander around or unwind on reindeer hides, tuning in on headphones to Sámi elders imparting stories and wisdom.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why the nose? It might appear playful, but the installation pays tribute to a obscure biological feat: experts have discovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the surrounding air it takes in by eighty degrees, enabling the creature to endure in harsh Arctic temperatures. Expanding the nose to bigger than a person, Sara notes, "produces a feeling of insignificance that you as a individual are not superior over nature." The artist is a former journalist, writer for kids, and land defender, who comes from a reindeer-herding family in the far north of Norway. "Maybe that creates the possibility to shift your viewpoint or spark some humbleness," she continues.

A Celebration to Indigenous Heritage

The labyrinthine installation is part of a features in Sara's immersive exhibition honoring the traditions, knowledge, and beliefs of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi count roughly 100,000 people ranged across northern Norway, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an territory they call Sápmi). They have endured discrimination, cultural suppression, and eradication of their dialect by all four states. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an creature at the core of the Sámi belief system and origin tale, the art also highlights the people's challenges associated with the global warming, property rights, and colonialism.

Metaphor in Materials

Along the lengthy access slope, there's a soaring, 26-metre sculpture of skins ensnared by utility lines. It can be read as a symbol for the societal frameworks constraining the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part spiritual ascent, this part of the artwork, called Goavve-, relates to the Sámi name for an severe climatic event, whereby dense layers of ice develop as varying conditions liquefy and refreeze the snow, locking in the reindeers' primary winter sustenance, lichen. Goavvi is a consequence of climate change, which is happening up to much more rapidly in the Polar region than globally.

Three years ago, I met with Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a severe cold period and accompanied Sámi pastoralists on their Arctic vehicles in freezing temperatures as they carried trailers of food pellets on to the exposed frozen landscape to provide by hand. These animals crowded round us, pawing the frozen ground in vain for vegetative pieces. This resource-intensive and demanding process is having a severe impact on animal rearing—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. Yet the other option is death. As goavvi winters become routine, reindeer are perishing—some from hunger, others submerging after sinking in water bodies through prematurely melting ice. To some extent, the art is a monument to them. "By overlapping of elements, in a way I'm introducing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Diverging Worldviews

The sculpture also emphasizes the stark divergence between the modern interpretation of energy as a commodity to be exploited for gain and livelihood and the Sámi philosophy of life force as an innate essence in animals, people, and land. This venue's past as a fossil fuel plant is linked with this, as is what the Sámi view as environmental exploitation by regional governments. In their efforts to be standard bearers for clean sources, Nordic nations have disagreed with the Sámi over the construction of turbine fields, river barriers, and digging operations on their traditional territory; the Sámi assert their fundamental freedoms, incomes, and way of life are threatened. "It's hard being such a tiny group to protect your rights when the arguments are grounded in environmental protection," Sara observes. "Extractivism has co-opted the discourse of environmentalism, but still it's just attempting to find alternative ways to maintain patterns of expenditure."

Individual Conflicts

The artist and her family have themselves clashed with the Norwegian government over its tightening policies on animal husbandry. In 2016, Sara's sibling embarked on a series of unsuccessful legal cases over the mandatory slaughter of his herd, apparently to stop overgrazing. As a show of solidarity, Sara developed a extended series of pieces titled Pile O'Sápmi featuring a huge screen of four hundred cranial remains, which was exhibited at the the show Documenta 14 and later acquired by the national institution, where it is displayed in the lobby.

The Role of Art in Activism

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