Walter Sanmartin

︎ Information

︎︎︎ Exhibitions 
                             






Chrysopoeia (Tobacco Y Ron)

Year: 2024

Media: Lumber,  Furniture pads (U-Haul), Rolling Tobacco, Twine

Size:  4’ x 2.5” x 6’


    Chrysopoeia (Tabaco Y Ron) is a performance and sculpture that explores the intersections of alchemy and immigrant labor through a parody of the leather tanning process. Inspired by postmodernist compositions and philosophies, this work recontextualizes traditional tanning methods, presenting a procedural diptych that contrasts the rational and irrational.
    The process begins with cutting (U-haul) moving pads to resemble an animal’s hide. This felt is then immersed in a "tanning liquor" composed of water and 12 oz of rolling tobacco. After seven days of soaking, the felt is removed, stretched, and left to dry under the Miami sun for another seven days. This ritualistic process serves as an homage to the labor and transformation inherent in both alchemical and immigrant ideology.
    By juxtaposing the meticulous, labor-intensive practices of bark tanning and leather stretching with the fictitious methods applied to the felt, I allude back to the piece’s title, Chrysopoeia (Tabaco Y Ron), where “Chrysopoeia" refers to the alchemical pursuit of turning base materials into gold and Tabaco Y Ron references the popular Colombian cumbia. The piece merges the seemingly unrelated subjects through their underlying sense of yearning.