Monica Puig (2016)

Created with fuse beads, this piece recreates the moment Puerto Rican tennis player Mónica Puig won gold at the 2016 Olympic Games—defeating Germany’s representative in a historic and symbolic match. As the first Olympic gold medal for Puerto Rico, the game became a point of national pride. For the artist, living in Germany at the time, it also became a way to introduce herself and assert her identity—an attempt often met with blankness or disconnect. This early work marks both personal and political terrain: celebration, displacement, and the limits of recognition under colonial ambiguity.