Unveiling the Smell of Anxiety: The Sámi Artist Revamps Tate's Exhibition Space with Reindeer Influenced Exhibit

Visitors to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unexpected experiences in its spacious Turbine Hall. They have sunbathed under an man-made sun, descended down amusement rides, and seen robotic sea creatures drifting through the air. Yet this marks the inaugural time they will be engaging themselves in the complex nose passages of a reindeer. The newest artistic project for this huge space—developed by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—invites gallerygoers into a winding construction inspired by the expanded inside of a reindeer's nose passages. Inside, they can stroll around or relax on reindeer hides, listening on earphones to Sámi elders imparting narratives and insights.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why choose the nasal structure? It might appear playful, but the exhibit pays tribute to a little-known biological feat: experts have uncovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the surrounding air it takes in by 80 degrees celsius, helping the animal to survive in inhospitable Arctic conditions. Expanding the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara notes, "produces a sense of smallness that you as a person are not superior over nature." She is a ex- writer, children's author, and land defender, who hails from a pastoral family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Maybe that creates the possibility to alter your perspective or evoke some modesty," she adds.

A Celebration to Traditional Ways

The winding design is one of several components in Sara's absorbing commission honoring the traditions, knowledge, and philosophy of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi number about 100,000 people ranged across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and the Kola region (an area they call Sápmi). They have endured oppression, cultural suppression, and repression of their language by all four countries. By focusing on the reindeer, an animal at the center of the Sámi cosmology and founding narrative, the work also spotlights the people's challenges associated with the environmental emergency, land dispossession, and imperialism.

Meaning in Elements

Along the lengthy entry ramp, there's a towering, eighty-five-foot formation of reindeer hides ensnared by electrical wires. It represents a metaphor for the political and economic systems restricting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part celestial ladder, this part of the exhibit, called Goavve-, relates to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, wherein thick layers of ice appear as varying temperatures liquefy and ice over the snow, encasing the reindeers' primary cold-season sustenance, moss. Goavvi is a result of planetary warming, which is taking place up to at an accelerated rate in the Far North than elsewhere.

A few years back, I visited Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a goavvi winter and accompanied Sámi reindeer keepers on their motorized sleds in freezing temperatures as they hauled carts of food pellets on to the exposed Arctic plains to provide manually. The reindeer crowded round us, digging the icy ground in vain attempts for vegetative pieces. This expensive and labour-intensive method is having a drastic effect on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' independence. Yet the choice is starvation. As these icy periods become routine, reindeer are succumbing—a number from lack of food, others suffocating after falling into streams through prematurely melting ice. In a sense, the work is a monument to them. "With the layering of materials, in a way I'm transporting the condition to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Belief Systems

This artwork also emphasizes the stark contrast between the industrial interpretation of electricity as a asset to be utilized for gain and livelihood and the Sámi outlook of life force as an innate power in creatures, individuals, and land. This venue's history as a fossil fuel plant is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi consider environmental exploitation by regional governments. In their efforts to be standard bearers for clean sources, these states have clashed with the Sámi over the construction of wind energy projects, water power facilities, and extraction sites on their traditional territory; the Sámi argue their human rights, livelihoods, and culture are endangered. "It's hard being such a small minority to defend yourself when the arguments are based on environmental protection," Sara comments. "Extractivism has adopted the rhetoric of ecology, but nonetheless it's just aiming to find more suitable ways to maintain patterns of use."

Individual Struggles

Sara and her kin have themselves conflicted with the Norwegian government over its tightening regulations on reindeer management. Previously, Sara's sibling undertook a set of ultimately unsuccessful court actions over the required reduction of his animals, ostensibly to stop vegetation depletion. To back him, Sara produced a multi-year set of pieces named Pile O'Sápmi comprising a colossal screen of numerous cranial remains, which was exhibited at the 2017 show Documenta 14 and later acquired by the national institution, where it hangs in the entrance.

The Role of Art in Advocacy

For many Sámi, creative work seems the sole sphere in which they can be listened to by the global community. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|