Walter Sanmartin

︎ Information

︎︎︎ Exhibitions 
                             




An Unfair Exchange

Year: 2023

Media: Canvas, Body paint, Used clothing, Coated wire


Size: 42" x 40" x 21" (approximately)



    An Unfair Exchange is based on an interview of a girl's adolescence, at 11 years old she was segregated from other kids and controlled by her strict, inattentive parents. Throughout her childhood, she confided in antisocial hobbies but as she grew older would sneakily access the internet. Through her online games, she would eventually end up in group chats with significantly older men. As she developed attachments and filled her paternal needs, they began to sexualize her, pressuring her to roleplay while she naively cooperated. On one occasion, she would join a video call with a 50 year old man receiving oral sex from a young girl. This frightened her, serving as a rude awakening to her situation. It only grew worse as these anonymous men began to coerce her into sending explicit photos. As she integrated  into society (around the time she entered middle school) she decided to distance herself from her exploiters, yet still fell back on them in times of loneliness.
    The interview led me to think about the extent people go to for warmth and affection. The cloak is a physical manifestation of this experience, depicting warmth in exchange for comfortability. The model is naked and stained by the paint lining the garment. The cloak is composed of clothing, gradating to darker more perversive colors, while also representing different stages of life that the trauma seeps into.