The Lives of Animals

Britta Marakatt-Labba is a Sámi artist who was raised in a reindeer-herding family in one of the northernmost regions of the world. She is primarily known for her embroidery work that tells stories about the Sámi Indigenous com­munity, their livelihood, culture and the struggle against political oppression. Her practice is deeply concerned with environmental issues and the industrial­isation of natural resources. 

Marakatt-Labba’s prints based on her embroidery feature groups of people and herds of reindeer merging into a bor­derless landscape, reflecting the Sámi’s historically nomadic lifestyle and their cohabitation with the region’s native animals. Thus the print Luossa – sjön som tömdes [Luossa – The Lake that Was Emptied] (2023) addresses the damag­ing consequences of mining that led to the destruction of a local lake that was pivotal to the community and reindeer herding. In Nya mål [New Goals] (2023), white reindeers symbolise hope and faith in nature, while the black rats in Mardröm [Nightmare] (2020) refer to the colonial struggles of the Sámi people. 

Nya mål, 2023

Exhibited works: 

En del av historien, 2020
Luossa – sjön som tömdes, 2023
Mardröm, 2020
Nya mål, 2023
Courtesy Galleri Helle Knudsen