Project Information
Name of the project: Romulus and Remus: Succulent Piñata
Architects: The Bittertang Farm
Location: New York City
Year (project/construction): 2010
Client: The Architectural League of New York
Fabrication: The Bittertang Farm
Photography: Anna Ritsch
Our interest in the accumulation of biological matter around objects is articulated in human form
with Romulus and Remus; a Succulent Piñata. The piñata merges sport with the narrative and
imagery of Romulus and Remus being fed by the She-Wolf to produce an environment thick in
childish anticipation and nourishing liquids. From the She-Wolf we get a mammalian body and
protective posture, soft fur coat with tender and moist underbelly. This incorporates with the
piñata to produce a more interactive and enticing game full of opportunity and various ways of
accessing candy. We imagine a piñata whose mood moves beyond the festive and pleasurable
acquiring succulent qualities that belie the saccharine contents held within. It is imagined to be a
fecund beast held captive above ogling children, their favorite substance suspended mere feet
from their shortened grasps attracting other children like flies to her honey-dripping belly. The
activities produced by such a decadent feast are as integral to our understanding of the object
and its associated mood.
The interior of the piñata is a secret and hidden world of sugary delights. What does this interior
look like? If the piñata was living, would it bleed sugar? In Romulus and Remus the answer is
yes. Her body is composed of sugar in various states, caramelized, syrupy, crystallized,
granulated and powdered. Her belly is a radiant hardened and brittle candy shell, encasing a
liquid candy interior. Her soft marshmallowy body protects this fragile organ. Not only does sugar
run in the piñata’s veins but in its flesh and through its babies as well. The piñata gives birth to
multiple babies, knowing full well that hungry children will scarf most of them. She keeps them
close to her in her sugar canal where they can grab hold of sticky protrusions. The babies can
leave the canal by lowering themselves on sticky strands of sugar, occasionally a few get too
excited and fall to the ground, stranded.
