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Attendees to Tate Modern are familiar to surprising encounters in its expansive Turbine Hall. They have sunbathed under an simulated sun, slid down amusement rides, and observed automated jellyfish floating through the air. Yet this marks the inaugural time they will be venturing themselves in the detailed nose passages of a reindeer. The newest artistic project for this cavernous space—designed by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—encourages gallerygoers into a winding structure inspired by the enlarged interior of a reindeer's nasal cavities. Once inside, they can wander around or chill out on skins, listening on earphones to Sámi elders sharing narratives and knowledge.

Why the Nose?

Why the nose? It might seem whimsical, but the artwork pays tribute to a obscure biological feat: experts have discovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can heat the incoming air it breathes in by eighty degrees, helping the creature to thrive in inhospitable Arctic temperatures. Scaling the nose to larger than human size, Sara explains, "produces a feeling of smallness that you as a person are not in control over nature." Sara is a ex- reporter, young adult author, and land defender, who hails from a pastoral family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Perhaps that generates the possibility to shift your viewpoint or evoke some modesty," she adds.

A Tribute to Indigenous Heritage

The maze-like installation is part of a components in Sara's immersive commission showcasing the culture, science, and philosophy of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi number approximately 100,000 people distributed across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an territory they call Sápmi). They've endured discrimination, cultural suppression, and repression of their tongue by all four states. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an animal at the core of the Sámi belief system and founding narrative, the art also draws attention to the group's struggles associated with the climate crisis, property rights, and colonialism.

Meaning in Materials

On the long entrance ramp, there's a soaring, 26-metre sculpture of pelts trapped by utility lines. It can be read as a metaphor for the societal frameworks restricting the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part celestial ladder, this section of the exhibit, called Goavve-, points to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, whereby thick coatings of ice form as fluctuating conditions thaw and ice over the snow, trapping the reindeers' key winter sustenance, fungus. The condition is a result of global heating, which is occurring up to at an accelerated rate in the Arctic than globally.

Previously, I visited Sara in the Norwegian far north during a severe cold period and accompanied Sámi reindeer keepers on their Arctic vehicles in freezing temperatures as they carried trailers of animal nutrition on to the wind-scoured frozen landscape to provide through labor. The reindeer surrounded round us, pawing the frozen ground in vain for lichen-covered pieces. This resource-intensive and laborious procedure is having a significant effect on herding practices—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. But the alternative is death. When such conditions become routine, reindeer are perishing—some from lack of food, others drowning after sinking in streams through thinning ice sheets. On one level, the work is a monument to them. "By overlapping of components, in a way I'm bringing the condition to London," says Sara.

Diverging Perspectives

This artwork also emphasizes the clear contrast between the industrial view of electricity as a asset to be harnessed for profit and survival and the Sámi philosophy of life force as an innate power in creatures, people, and the environment. The gallery's past as a industrial facility is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi view as environmental exploitation by regional governments. While attempting to be exemplars for sustainable power, these states have clashed with the Sámi over the construction of windfarms, hydroelectric dams, and digging operations on their traditional territory; the Sámi argue their fundamental freedoms, ways of life, and way of life are at risk. "It's challenging being such a small minority to protect your rights when the arguments are grounded in environmental protection," Sara notes. "Extractivism has co-opted the language of sustainability, but yet it's just aiming to find better ways to continue habits of use."

Individual Struggles

She and her kin have themselves clashed with the national administration over its increasingly stringent regulations on reindeer management. A few years ago, Sara's brother initiated a set of unsuccessful court actions over the required reduction of his livestock, ostensibly to stop vegetation depletion. As a show of solidarity, Sara produced a four-year set of artworks named Pile O'Sápmi including a colossal screen of 400 animal bones, which was exhibited at the 2017's art exhibition Documenta 14 and later obtained by the National Museum of Oslo, where it resides in the entryway.

Creative Expression as Advocacy

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