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Guests to the renowned gallery are familiar to unexpected displays in its spacious Turbine Hall. They've sunbathed under an man-made sun, slid down helter skelters, and witnessed automated jellyfish hovering through the air. But this marks the initial time they will be engaging themselves in the detailed nose chambers of a reindeer. The current artist commission for this huge space—created by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites visitors into a labyrinthine construction modeled after the scaled-up interior of a reindeer's nose cavities. Once inside, they can wander around or relax on pelts, listening on headphones to community leaders imparting narratives and knowledge.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why the nose? It could seem playful, but the exhibit honors a rarely recognized biological feat: experts have uncovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the ambient air it inhales by 80 degrees celsius, allowing the creature to thrive in harsh Arctic climates. Enlarging the nose to bigger than a person, Sara explains, "creates a perception of smallness that you as a individual are not superior over nature." The artist is a ex- writer, young adult author, and rights advocate, who is from a herding family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Perhaps that fosters the potential to shift your perspective or evoke some modesty," she adds.

A Celebration to Indigenous Heritage

The maze-like design is one of several components in Sara's immersive exhibition showcasing the heritage, knowledge, and beliefs of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi count approximately 100,000 people spread across northern Norway, the Finnish Arctic, the Swedish Lapland, and the Russian Arctic (an territory they call Sápmi). They have faced discrimination, cultural suppression, and eradication of their tongue by all four states. Through highlighting the reindeer, an creature at the center of the Sámi mythology and founding narrative, the art also draws attention to the group's issues relating to the climate crisis, loss of territory, and imperialism.

Meaning in Components

On the long entry slope, there's a towering, 26-metre structure of reindeer hides ensnared by electrical wires. It serves as a metaphor for the governance and financial structures constraining the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part heavenly staircase, this component of the exhibit, called Goavve-, relates to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, in which solid layers of ice form as changing conditions melt and solidify again the snow, encasing the reindeers' main cold-season nourishment, lichen. Goavvi is a outcome of planetary warming, which is happening up to much more rapidly in the Arctic than in other regions.

Previously, I met with Sara in a remote town during a severe cold period and accompanied Sámi reindeer keepers on their snowmobiles in chilly conditions as they transported carts of supplementary feed on to the barren tundra to distribute through labor. The reindeer gathered round us, scratching the frozen ground in vain for vegetative pieces. This resource-intensive and labour-intensive method is having a severe effect on herding practices—and on the animals' independence. However the other option is death. As these icy periods become frequent, reindeer are dying—a number from lack of food, others drowning after falling into streams through prematurely melting ice. To some extent, the work is a memorial to them. "With the layering of materials, in a way I'm introducing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Diverging Worldviews

The sculpture also underscores the sharp difference between the western interpretation of energy as a resource to be harnessed for gain and livelihood and the Sámi worldview of life force as an innate life force in creatures, people, and the environment. This venue's legacy as a coal and oil power station is linked with this, as is what the Sámi consider eco-imperialism by regional governments. While attempting to be standard bearers for clean sources, these states have clashed with the Sámi over the construction of wind energy projects, hydroelectric dams, and mines on their ancestral land; the Sámi assert their human rights, livelihoods, and way of life are at risk. "It's hard being such a small minority to stand your ground when the reasons are rooted in environmental protection," Sara comments. "Mining practices has appropriated the language of sustainability, but still it's just attempting to find more suitable ways to continue patterns of consumption."

Personal Challenges

The artist and her kin have personally clashed with the state authorities over its tightening policies on animal husbandry. In 2016, Sara's brother embarked on a sequence of unsuccessful legal cases over the required reduction of his animals, ostensibly to stop overgrazing. In support, Sara produced a multi-year set of pieces titled Pile O'Sápmi featuring a massive drape of four hundred animal bones, which was displayed at the the event Documenta 14 and later acquired by the National Museum of Oslo, where it hangs in the entrance.

Art as Activism

For many Sámi, creative work appears the only sphere in which they can be listened to by the global community. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|