Delving into this Aroma of Fear: The Sámi Artist Transforms Tate's Turbine Hall with Arctic Deer Inspired Exhibit

Attendees to Tate Modern are familiar to unexpected experiences in its expansive Turbine Hall. They've relaxed under an simulated sun, glided down amusement rides, and seen AI-powered sea creatures floating through the air. Yet this marks the first time they will be venturing themselves in the complex nose chambers of a reindeer. The latest artistic project for this huge space—developed by Indigenous Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes patrons into a maze-like structure inspired by the enlarged interior of a reindeer's nasal airways. Upon entering, they can stroll around or chill out on pelts, listening on earphones to tribal seniors sharing narratives and wisdom.

Why the Nose?

Why the nose? It may seem whimsical, but the installation pays tribute to a obscure biological feat: experts have discovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the surrounding air it breathes in by eighty degrees, allowing the creature to survive in harsh Arctic conditions. Scaling the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara says, "generates a perception of smallness that you as a person are not in control over nature." Sara is a ex- reporter, young adult author, and rights advocate, who is from a pastoral family in the far north of Norway. "Possibly that generates the possibility to change your perspective or spark some modesty," she continues.

A Tribute to Sámi Culture

The winding design is one of several features in Sara's immersive exhibition celebrating the traditions, understanding, and philosophy of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi total roughly 100,000 people spread across the Norwegian north, Finland, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an region they call Sápmi). They have experienced discrimination, integration policies, and repression of their tongue by all four nations. Through highlighting the reindeer, an creature at the center of the Sámi mythology and origin tale, the work also draws attention to the people's challenges associated with the environmental emergency, property rights, and colonialism.

Symbolism in Elements

On the lengthy access slope, there's a towering, eighty-five-foot sculpture of pelts trapped by electrical wires. It serves as a analogy for the societal frameworks limiting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part spiritual ascent, this section of the installation, titled Goavve-, refers to the Sámi name for an harsh environmental condition, wherein dense sheets of ice form as fluctuating conditions liquefy and solidify again the snow, encasing the reindeers' main winter food, lichen. This phenomenon is a outcome of global heating, which is taking place up to at an accelerated rate in the Far North than globally.

Previously, I visited Sara in a remote town during a icy season and joined Sámi herders on their motorized sleds in freezing temperatures as they hauled trailers of animal nutrition on to the wind-scoured Arctic plains to distribute by hand. These animals surrounded round us, scratching the icy ground in vain for lichen-covered pieces. This expensive and demanding method is having a significant effect on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' independence. But the alternative is malnutrition. As goavvi winters become frequent, reindeer are dying—some from lack of food, others submerging after sinking in streams through thinning ice sheets. To some extent, the art is a memorial to them. "With the layering of components, in a way I'm bringing the condition to London," says Sara.

Diverging Belief Systems

The sculpture also highlights the sharp contrast between the western interpretation of electricity as a asset to be exploited for gain and existence and the Sámi outlook of life force as an innate life force in animals, humans, and the environment. The gallery's legacy as a industrial facility is connected to this, as is what the Sámi consider green colonialism by regional governments. In their efforts to be standard bearers for renewable energy, these states have locked horns with the Sámi over the construction of windfarms, river barriers, and digging operations on their native soil; the Sámi contend their legal protections, ways of life, and way of life are threatened. "It's very difficult being such a limited population to protect your rights when the reasons are rooted in saving the world," Sara observes. "Resource exploitation has appropriated the language of environmentalism, but still it's just striving to find alternative ways to maintain habits of consumption."

Individual Challenges

Sara and her relatives have themselves disagreed with the Norwegian government over its increasingly stringent regulations on herding. Previously, Sara's brother undertook a sequence of unsuccessful legal cases over the forced culling of his herd, apparently to stop excessive feeding. To back him, Sara developed a multi-year collection of pieces titled Pile O'Sápmi featuring a colossal screen of 400 reindeer skulls, which was displayed at the 2017's event Documenta 14 and later obtained by the National Museum of Oslo, where it resides in the lobby.

Art as Awareness

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