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Visitors to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unusual experiences in its spacious Turbine Hall. They have basked under an man-made sun, descended down spiral slides, and seen automated sea creatures drifting through the air. Yet this marks the inaugural time they will be immersing themselves in the complex nasal chambers of a reindeer. The latest artist commission for this huge space—created by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—encourages gallerygoers into a labyrinthine construction modeled after the expanded inside of a reindeer's nose cavities. Inside, they can meander around or unwind on pelts, tuning in on headphones to tribal seniors imparting stories and knowledge.

Why the Nose?

Why choose the nasal structure? It could appear quirky, but the installation celebrates a rarely recognized natural marvel: scientists have found that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the surrounding air it takes in by eighty degrees, allowing the animal to thrive in harsh Arctic temperatures. Expanding the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara explains, "generates a sense of inferiority that you as a human being are not superior over nature." She is a former reporter, young adult author, and environmental activist, who hails from a reindeer-herding family in the far north of Norway. "Perhaps that fosters the chance to change your perspective or evoke some humility," she adds.

An Homage to Traditional Ways

The maze-like installation is part of a components in Sara's absorbing commission honoring the traditions, understanding, and worldview of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi total about 100,000 people ranged across northern Norway, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an territory they call Sápmi). They have faced discrimination, forced assimilation, and eradication of their dialect by all four states. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an animal at the center of the Sámi mythology and creation story, the art also draws attention to the community's issues relating to the global warming, property rights, and colonialism.

Meaning in Elements

Along the long entrance ramp, there's a towering, 26-meter formation of reindeer hides ensnared by electrical wires. It represents a symbol for the societal frameworks limiting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part celestial ladder, this section of the exhibit, named Goavve-, relates to the Sámi name for an harsh environmental condition, wherein solid layers of ice appear as changing conditions liquefy and refreeze the snow, trapping the reindeers' key winter sustenance, fungus. Goavvi is a consequence of climate change, which is occurring up to at an accelerated rate in the Far North than globally.

Three years ago, I traveled to see Sara in the Norwegian far north during a goavvi winter and joined Sámi pastoralists on their motorized sleds in biting cold as they transported trailers of food pellets on to the exposed tundra to dispense manually. The herd crowded round us, pawing the icy ground in futility for vegetative bits. This costly and demanding method is having a drastic impact on animal rearing—and on the animals' natural survival. But the other option is death. As goavvi winters become frequent, reindeer are succumbing—some from starvation, others suffocating after plunging into lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. To some extent, the art is a monument to them. "With the layering of materials, in a way I'm introducing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Opposing Perspectives

This artwork also emphasizes the sharp difference between the industrial view of electricity as a commodity to be utilized for economic benefit and livelihood and the Sámi philosophy of vitality as an inherent essence in creatures, people, and nature. Tate Modern's history as a industrial facility is connected to this, as is what the Sámi see as environmental exploitation by regional governments. While attempting to be exemplars for renewable energy, these states have clashed with the Sámi over the building of windfarms, hydroelectric dams, and digging operations on their traditional territory; the Sámi assert their fundamental freedoms, incomes, and way of life are endangered. "It's challenging being such a tiny group to defend yourself when the justifications are rooted in global sustainability," Sara notes. "Extractivism has adopted the language of environmentalism, but yet it's just attempting to find alternative ways to persist in habits of use."

Individual Conflicts

Sara and her kin have themselves clashed with the national administration over its ever-stricter policies on reindeer management. Previously, Sara's brother embarked on a series of ultimately unsuccessful legal cases over the forced culling of his animals, apparently to stop excessive feeding. In support, Sara created a four-year set of creations titled Pile O'Sápmi including a huge drape of numerous reindeer skulls, which was displayed at the 2017 art exhibition Documenta 14 and later acquired by the national institution, where it resides in the entryway.

The Role of Art in Activism

For many Sámi, visual expression seems the exclusive domain in which they can be heard by outsiders. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|