How a Group of Artists Built a Secret Apartment Inside a Mall and Stayed There for Four Years
The documentary 'Secret Mall Apartment' tells a wild true story about art
A few years ago, Jeremy Workman was at a festival in Greece making Lily Topples the World, a documentary about a famed domino artist, when he met Michael Townsend, who makes intricate, temporary murals using tape.
The two hit it off quickly. After many hours of talking, Townsend sheepishly revealed that he was “the guy who lived in the mall.”
“I had no idea what he was talking about,” Workman recalled in a recent video chat.
A quick Google search revealed that Townsend was the leader of a group of artists who, back in 2003, built an apartment deep in the bowels of the Providence Place Mall, somewhere between the movie theater and the parking garage.
The 800-square foot dwelling, concealed from view by a cinderblock wall Townsend and his friends built by hand, was furnished with a couch, a cabinet full of china, and a PlayStation. There was even a door that locked but looked nondescript enough to avoid scrutiny.
They occupied the space for four years, until they were finally caught by mall security in 2007. Townsend was charged with trespassing, sentenced to probation, and banned from Providence Place for life. The stranger-than-fiction story attracted national headlines at the time and has lived on as an urban legend in Rhode Island.
Workman instantly became obsessed with the tale of the secret mall apartment, and spent much of the next year trying to convince Townsend and his collaborators to participate in a documentary. They had been approached by numerous filmmakers over the years, but always declined. Eventually, something about his pitch won them over.
Workman appreciated the outrageous aspects of the story, but also appreciated the more profound themes bubbling under the surface. As he learned more about the apartment, it “shape-shifted,” he said.
Sometimes it was a stance against gentrification. Sometimes it was an elaborate prank. Sometimes it was a piece of art unto itself. Sometimes it was a headquarters for them to figure out their other art. It had all those layers, and that’s what interested me.
He explores all these layers and more in Secret Mall Apartment, a supremely entertaining, thought-provoking feature-length documentary (now available for digital rental). The film draws from an extensive trove of home movie footage shot inside the mall and apartment in the mid aughts. It also includes present-day interviews with Townsend and the seven other artists involved in the project, many of whom are speaking about it publicly for the first time. It’s clear that the apartment was more than just a stunt, and stands as a formative experience in their creative lives. (Several still carry the apartment key with them, like a cherished totem.)
Executive produced by Jesse Eisenberg, the film documents the absurd lengths Townsend and his friends went to to build the apartment, including covertly hauling two tons of cinderblock into the darkest, dustiest recesses of the mall.
But it also chronicles the transformation of Providence and its arts scene over the past few decades, and explains why the project was so meaningful to everyone involved. The mall, which opened in 1999, encroached on a neighborhood dotted with old warehouses where many of the artists had lived and worked. The apartment was a way to reclaim that space and recreate a lost community. It served as a kind of clubhouse where the eight artists gathered to discuss their work, dream up new projects, and simply hang out.
Secret Mall Apartment also paints a fascinating portrait of Townsend, a wildly gifted and inspirational artist who seems almost perversely determined not to monetize his work. We learn about some of Townsend’s other endeavors, including the elaborate but easily removed tape murals he has created around the world.
“He is the world’s most acclaimed tape artist, which to most people, that just sounds kooky,” Workman said. “Yet it’s part of this bigger vision of his, which has to do with art being public and something everybody participates in.”
Workman gained access to roughly 25 hours of video, shot by the apartment-dwellers on the small, inexpensive digital cameras that were commonplace before the smartphone came along. They never intended to make a documentary with this material, and simply filmed themselves whenever they felt compelled to do so. (After a few years, they stopped entirely.)
“One of the remarkable things that I noticed with all the footage was they never address the camera,” Workman said. “It just wasn’t a priority in their brain to record for any reason other than it was part of being present.”
Still, it was a goldmine. The video captures moments both mundane (furniture shopping) and profound (a heated argument between Townsend and his then-wife, Adriana Valdez Young, in the mall food court).
“Sometimes it was just them eating pizza and playing Grand Theft Auto for an hour. But amid that there were some incredible diamonds,” Workman said.
Since the apartment was discovered in 2007, the American mall has been on a steep decline. There are now websites and entire social media accounts devoted to dead malls. The antipathy once directed at malls as symbols of conformity and consumerism has largely been replaced by nostalgia for bygone public spaces where people shopped, socialized, and sipped Orange Juliuses.
“They were really meaningful for a lot of people,” Workman said.
Providence Place Mall is still standing, but the company that manages it is deeply in debt, and its future as a shopping center is uncertain.
Ironically, Secret Mall Apartment has been one of the most popular attractions at Providence Place Mall in recent years. The film premiered on the mall’s 16-screen multiplex in March and played there for six months, drawing thousands of people. A partial replica of the apartment was even installed in the cinema lobby, a few hundred feet from the actual space.
Speaking of which: you may be wondering if Workman ever made it to the secret apartment — or what’s left of it — himself.
“The only thing I’ll say is if you’re making a movie about the Titanic,” he said coyly, “you want to see where the Titanic is now.”
Meredith Blake is the culture columnist for The Contrarian
Michael Townsend was the visiting artist who would create a fabulous tape mural on the wall of the Worcester Art Museum (WAM) all day and night with his team - inspiring the 150 Massachusetts juniors in high school who were attending Art All State, a two day experience collaborating and installing temporary installations in WAM studios with artist mentors. It was an annual experience and Michael was a very generous artist sharing his creative passion with these younger people and with all of us. The story of the apartment hadn't been known to us, who volunteered from across the state to assist with the administration of the program. He must have kept it on the"down-low". It's fascinating and remarkable.
wow !