Sugar Rush

The art of sweet deception

Sydney Anmuth
Sugar Rush, 2022
Insulation board, clay, acrylic paint, adhesive, toothpicks, and fishing line
Installation: 10 × 8 ft.
Each box: 14 × 29 × 9 in.
Suspended installation

Colorful Skittles candy spilling from open boxes into suspended strands against a white background
Assorted colorful candy boxes, including Junior Mints, M&M’s, Swedish Fish, Skittles, Mike and Ike, Twizzlers Bites, and Sour Patch Kids, with candies spilling onto a white background.
Sour Patch Kids candy box with colorful gummy candies spilling out

In Sugar Rush, I draw on the anticipation of a cinema concession stand, enlarging seven familiar candy boxes into a suspended installation. I constructed the boxes from lightweight insulation board, recreated their packaging by hand in acrylic paint, and suspended sculpted clay candies on fishing line, creating the impression of sweets spilling into space.

I arranged the boxes at different heights and angles, using their distinctive colors and lettering to guide the eye across the composition. Cascading forms and cast shadows extend the installation, giving still objects the suggestion of movement. The work considers the emotional power of familiar packaging: how a particular color, shape, or name can recall a childhood ritual before a sweet is even tasted. Through scale and staging, I give that brief anticipation a lasting physical presence, holding the child’s excitement and the adult’s memory within the same scene.

Sugar Rush

Detail

At close range, the installation reveals the handwork behind its spectacle. I modeled the candies in clay, retaining the familiar silhouettes and raised details that make each sweet recognizable. Their glossy surfaces catch the light, while descending strands and cast shadows suggest a spill held in midair—a fleeting gesture given sculptural form.