Two reimagined swings in the form of giant gold bamboo hoop earrings are now on display at the Rose Kennedy Greenway through October 2026! Big Hoops to Fill by Boston-based large-scale sculptor, Ja’Hari Ortega offers an interactive art display with a powerful message.
Big Hoops to Fill features two massive bamboo hoop earrings, also known as door knocker earrings. The earrings descend from a swing set frame inspired by the one Ortega grew up swinging on in Roxbury. Ortega created the display using a mix of steel, resin and fiberglass composite, epoxy paint, and polyurethane.
Ortega’s sculpture draws upon the cultural weight of bamboo hoop earrings, an iconic style of jewelry worn by many women of color that originated from early hip-hop culture and fashion, worn by performers such as Salt-N-Pepa, MC Lyte, Roxanne Shanté, and Queen Latifah, and featured in song lyrics by LL Cool J. As journalist Ivette Feliciano observes, these earrings “symbolize resistance and bear cultural significance [especially for] immigrant communities rooted in Indigenous and African traditions,” notes Ortega.
Rendering these symbolic earrings at a monumental scale at the heart of downtown Boston centers the culture of women of color in a public setting. It also invites all to delight their inner child and pause. Ortega wants people to take a moment to rest, swing, sit, and ponder. “Big Hoops to Fill inspires us to think both broadly and critically about which objects and whose histories form the basis of monuments in Boston’s public spaces,” notes the Rose Kennedy Greenway.
Big Hoops To Fill by Ja’Hari Ortega will be on display through October 2026.
Find it at the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Oliver Street on the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston. Use the embedded Google map below to access the exact location of this interactive art display in Boston: