Tropicarios #5 embodies constructed tropical fiction photography where Castello's memories of tropics blend with staged objects creating personal approximation inviting viewers to recognize own tropical fictions. This digital pigment color work gives life to plastic figurines, natural geodes, artificial plants through theatrical composition—atmosphere between reality (photographed objects) and fiction (surreal tropical narrative construction). The series plays with memory: not documenting actual tropics but constructing fantasy approximation mixing inherited tropical imagery with contemporary surreal sensibility. Tropicarios #5 evokes emotions about how collective tropical imagination may be more "real" than geographic reality: miniature staged scenes creating condensed theatrical tropical worlds that resonate with personal fantasies. Each viewer experiencing space where own fictions meet artist's, recognizing that authentic tropical experience might be constructed staged fantasy rather than documentary truth, geodes becoming tropical islands through photographic imagination.
Paloma Castello's Tropicarios is an invitation to experience a space in which the fiction and her memories of the tropics blend together to create a personal approximation between our own fictions and those of the artist.
Constructed tropical fiction photography blending memory and staging—personal approximation inviting viewers' own tropical fictions. Tropicarios #5 by Paloma Castello. Available at The Art Design Project, Miami Beach.
Constructed Tropical Fiction Photography – Tropicarios #5, 2017 by Castello
Tropicarios #5, 2017
From Tropicarios series
Digital photography print on chroma luxe.
Dimensions: 33 H x 21.6 W in.
Edition 3/5 + 1AP
Paloma Castello was born in Bogotá, Colombia in 1988. Castello has a Master's degree in Classical Studies from the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, as well as a Master's degree in Contemporary Photography from IED Madrid in Spain. She studied Photography, Art and Architecture at Central Saint Martins, London, United Kingdom and before beginning her training as an artist in Colombia she attended the School of Arts and Crafts of Santo Domingo to study Silversmithing Techniques and the University of the Andes where she studied Wood Reproduction. Castello and obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts from the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University, Bogotá, Colombia.
