Francisco Tropa

[3] Since his first solo exhibition in 1991, Francisco Tropa has since been building his unique body of work grounded the fusion of naturally occurring phenomena with a decidedly human interest for the mythical and unexplained, incorporating historical and archeological elements into his oeuvre.

The artist relies mostly on primal materials in his installations, incorporating glass, metals, stone, wood, insects or sand, redefining their original character through transporting them in a process reminiscent of a modern alchemy.

For example, one such piece titled Lantern projects the image of an hourglass onto a plaster screen, the device duplicating the experience of the passage of time with every grain of sand whose fall in unregulated intervals is reflected into the exhibition space.

Raising questions of metamorphosis, reconstruction and the fleeting human experience, the individual rooms contain unique storylines referencing everything from scientific history and early alchemist discoveries to Native American burial rites.

Shaped by the writings of Paul Scherbert and Raymond Roussel, the piece creates a unity out of seemingly incompatible elements, such as the floating assembly of a cube and two spheres that make up Le songe de Scipion or an ethnographic film depicting a Native American building a box in L’influence Americaine.