Delving into the Smell of Apprehension: Máret Ánne Sara Transforms The Gallery's Exhibition Space with Arctic Deer Influenced Installation

Visitors to Tate Modern are used to unexpected encounters in its expansive Turbine Hall. They have basked under an artificial sun, glided down amusement rides, and seen robotic jellyfish floating through the air. Yet this marks the initial time they will be venturing themselves in the complex nasal cavities of a reindeer. The latest creative installation for this huge space—developed by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—invites patrons into a maze-like design inspired by the enlarged inside of a reindeer's nose airways. Upon entering, they can wander around or chill out on pelts, listening on headphones to Sámi elders imparting stories and wisdom.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why choose the nasal structure? It could sound quirky, but the exhibit honors a little-known scientific wonder: scientists have uncovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the incoming air it inhales by eighty degrees, enabling the creature to survive in inhospitable Arctic temperatures. Expanding the nose to larger than human size, Sara says, "produces a feeling of insignificance that you as a individual are not in control over nature." Sara is a former writer, young adult author, and environmental activist, who hails from a herding family in the far north of Norway. "Maybe that generates the possibility to change your outlook or spark some humility," she adds.

A Celebration to Indigenous Heritage

The labyrinthine structure is one of several elements in Sara's immersive exhibition honoring the traditions, knowledge, and beliefs of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi number roughly 100,000 people ranged across the Norwegian north, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an territory they call Sápmi). They have faced persecution, forced assimilation, and suppression of their dialect by all four states. Through highlighting the reindeer, an creature at the core of the Sámi mythology and origin tale, the work also highlights the people's struggles associated with the global warming, loss of territory, and colonialism.

Metaphor in Elements

At the long entrance ramp, there's a looming, 26-meter structure of pelts trapped by electrical wires. It serves as a metaphor for the governance and financial structures restricting the Sámi. Part pylon, part spiritual ascent, this part of the installation, titled Goavve-, refers to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, in which dense sheets of ice appear as varying weather thaw and ice over the snow, encasing the reindeers' main winter nourishment, lichen. Goavvi is a consequence of global heating, which is occurring up to four times faster in the Arctic than globally.

Three years ago, I traveled to see Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a severe cold period and accompanied Sámi herders on their snowmobiles in chilly conditions as they transported trailers of food pellets on to the barren tundra to dispense by hand. These animals surrounded round us, scratching the slippery ground in vain attempts for vegetative morsels. This resource-intensive and laborious method is having a significant influence on animal rearing—and on the animals' independence. However the choice is starvation. As goavvi winters become commonplace, reindeer are dying—some from starvation, others suffocating after sinking in water bodies through prematurely melting ice. On one level, the installation is a tribute to them. "With the layering of materials, in a way I'm transporting the condition to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Belief Systems

The installation also emphasizes the clear difference between the industrial view of power as a asset to be utilized for profit and livelihood and the Sámi philosophy of energy as an natural life force in creatures, humans, and land. Tate Modern's legacy as a fossil fuel plant is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi see as environmental exploitation by Scandinavian states. While attempting to be leaders for renewable energy, Scandinavian countries have disagreed with the Sámi over the construction of windfarms, water power facilities, and digging operations on their traditional territory; the Sámi argue their legal protections, ways of life, and culture are endangered. "It's very difficult being such a small minority to stand your ground when the justifications are rooted in environmental protection," Sara notes. "Extractivism has appropriated the language of environmentalism, but still it's just attempting to find more suitable ways to continue practices of consumption."

Personal Conflicts

The artist and her family have themselves conflicted with the state authorities over its ever-stricter regulations on herding. In 2016, Sara's brother initiated a sequence of finally failed lawsuits over the forced culling of his livestock, supposedly to stop overgrazing. To back him, Sara produced a multi-year set of artworks titled Pile O'Sápmi comprising a colossal screen of numerous reindeer skulls, which was exhibited at the 2017's art exhibition Documenta 14 and later obtained by the public gallery, where it is displayed in the entrance.

The Role of Art in Activism

For many Sámi, visual expression seems the exclusive realm in which they can be listened to by outsiders. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|