Fantasy Island – Exhibition Open

For Shey Rivera Ríos and Huáscar Robles, Hurricane María is an atmospheric manifestation compounded by the fiscal crisis troubling Puerto Rico’s urban landscape. The installation and performance Fantasy Island is an experience that explores how tourism and consumer culture sell a “fantastical” luxury lifestyle, a tropical paradise twisting crisis into “opportunity”. A door opens into a real estate office selling dreams of luxury and reconstruction and the viewer delves into a dizzying spell of animated gifs, performance and altars.

For Fantasy Island, Rivera transformed Loisaida’s space into a real estate office surrounded by a black and white grid that envelops visitors while monitors flash GIFs that borrow aesthetics from the vaporwave movement. In one image, a hand waves a wad of cash to a “Puerto Rico” neon sign while icons of the Virgin Mary and a ram, both cultural symbols of Puerto Rico’s syncretism and colonial history, spin in an enticing, dizzying spell. Viewers are also inspired to reflect on how natural disasters such as the path of hurricanes affecting not only Puerto Rico but also our Caribbean neighbors maybe twisted into “opportunity” after the crisis subsides.

For the Loisaida Center, a cultural enterprise with deep roots in the Nuyorican and Latinx New York community, Fantasy Island stretches the island to New York and its Puerto Rican and Caribbean diaspora as it hits common issues they all grapple with.

The opening and closing reception will include a special performance.


Exhibition Viewing Hours: Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm and by appointment.


Throughout the fall, and beyond, the Loisaida Inc. Center’s programming will provide opportunities to pledge support to the relief and recovery efforts in the Caribbean.

 

Ecokit Puerto Rico

 

We are Puerto Rican artists living in New York who have collaborated extensively with eco-conscious nonprofit organizations, journalists and media.

In the wake of Hurricane Maria we conducted a quick assessment of needs and have assembled a list of immediate relief items focusing on portability, reuse, waste reduction and effectiveness in off grid situations.

We took this terrible situation as an opportunity to rebuild in sustainable ways, especially given the dilapidated & dangerous state of the island’s waste management which has produced toxic ashes in now hurricane stricken areas.


Visit EcoKitPuertoRico.org

You can help by fulfilling orders here. These resources will be delivered and shipped from our Center directly to trusted sources on the island.


How it works: 
  • Place an order for items on the ‘NEEDS LIST’ page

  • Ship items to our pick up center:

         Eco-Kits Duffle Help

         Loisaida Inc. Center

         710 East 9th Street

         New York, NY 10009​

  • Sorted items are immediately given to our volunteer travelers.

  • Eco-kits get picked up at airports in Puerto Rico by our contacted community coordinators and delivered to the following list of grass-roots organizations:

    Iser Caribe is our fiscal sponsor, a non profit ecological organization based in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.

    Loisaida Inc. Center, extending its support to the Puerto Rican community is housing our drop-off and pickups in its Lower East Side Location.

    Creatives Mean Business, supporting with communications, and design needs.

    Beneficiary Organizations in Puerto Rico, these organizations are the grass-roots recipients so far of the Pre-Assembled Kits:

    Taller Salud
    Casa Ruth
    ASPPRO
    Overseas Press Club
    Comedores Sociales de Puerto Rico
    Centro de Periodismo Investigativo
    Asociación de Foto Periodista de Puerto Rico
    Casa Pueblo
    Boys & Girls Club of Puerto Rico
    Boricuá: Asociación Boricua de Agricultura Ecológica
    Farmer Foot Brigades
    Colectivo Vueltabajo
    Colectivo AgroEcologico Guayabacherry
    Galeria Betances
    Ridge to Reefs
    Biblioteca Juvenil de Mayaguez
    Planeta Feliz