FANTASY ISLAND is a multimedia project and immersive artwork by Shey Rivera Ríos, that began in 2017 and continued as art, research and activism project through 2020.

Black and white Puerto Rican flags wave in the face of colonialism. Hurricanes Irma and María enter as atmospheric manifestations compounded by the fiscal and humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico. A door opens into a virtual real estate office selling dreams of luxury and redevelopment via a spell of animated gifs, video, performances and altars.

FANTASY ISLAND uses digital art to spotlight how tourism and consumer culture sell a “fantastical” luxury lifestyle, a tropical paradise twisting crisis into "opportunity". Digital animations play with vaporwave aesthetics to invite us into a world of future progress that was never delivered. What remains is a fantastic illusion, a virtual reality world only accessible to tourists and foreigners. Underneath the fantasy lies a humanitarian and financial crisis exacerbated by tourism, urban development, displacement, and colonization. What is the cost of this idyllic fantasy of progress and leisure amidst a debt crisis with profound implications on an island of 3.5 million U.S. citizens? Who's future are we serving?

FANTASY ISLAND is a collection of pieces: a series of animated collages or gifs using real estate ads and political and religious iconography; and a performance installation of a faux real estate office.