In The Marshmallow Suicide, a desperately nostalgic American Pie character slowly gluttonizes a giant marshmallow while repeating the chorus of Don McLean’s “American Pie.” The cathartic repetition impels the figure to float away on the lake atop the marshmallow, and subsequently drown herself in an act of despair.

The performance employs elements of American iconography: Miss Firecracker, the painterly summer landscape, a pop song everyone loves and knows well (but only the chorus), and a mass of fluffy sweet nothingness— the marshmallow. In a slow, violent convergence of patriotic nostalgia, the hopes and promises of America are devoured, supplicated and put to death.

More: caitlinberrigan.com