“Secret Mall Apartment” at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Society is a deep dive into a unique art project. Director and producer Jeremy Workman combines original footage and contemporary commentary to take us on a journey with eight Rhode Islanders who created a secret apartment in the mammoth Providence Place Mall in 2003.
At the time, Providence was experiencing an economic slump, and developers wanted to demolish existing buildings to create an enormous mall to attract wealthy consumers and make the city into a destination. Displaced locals resented the mall, as they couldn’t even afford to buy the goods on sale. One of the neighborhoods the developers tore down was an old mill complex, and it was used by avant-garde artists to produce antiestablishment work.
One of the artists, Michael Townsend, conceived of the subversive idea of finding an empty space within the mall to occupy. He tells us, “It seemed like a great way to plow through all of the negativity that had been built up for years, and the loss of our homes and the homes of hundreds of people.” In the film we see Townsend and his friends wandering the mall, sitting and planning in the food court, and eventually climbing through interior nooks and crannies, where they discover a secret space high up in the building. Mimicking the term developers used to justify corporate overbuilding, “underutilized space,” Townsend said, “It was a nowhere place.” And the artists thought, “Wait, maybe we have a responsibility to do something with it.” Another participant reflected, “It felt like such a magical thing to take a space from the mall, so someone needs to do it.”
We see the team scrappily create a living room by sneaking in furniture, tapping into the mall’s electricity, and even building a wall by smuggling in more than two tons of cinder blocks. The work began as part of an artistic project, creating a sanctuary within the imposing complex. But as time passed, the apartment became more than just a wild prank and a strike against gentrification. The artists started to use it as a “clubhouse” to coordinate meaningful public art projects. Employing tape, they created enormous portraits of people as public murals in places like Oklahoma City to commemorate the 1995 bombing, and in Manhattan in response to 9/11.
In contemporary interviews with the artists, none of whom had come forward before the film, they speak of the apartment in the past tense, indicating that it no longer exists. Thus, as we watch the historical footage and the group’s evolution, we feel an ever-present dread during what turns out to be four years of occupation, about how the inspiring project will come to an end.
Workman learned about the Secret Mall Apartment after coincidentally meeting Townsend in Athens while making another documentary. The two became friends, and Workman earned Townsend’s trust to create the film, winning out over 15 to 20 other directors. About persuading the other artists to participate, Workman said, “They probably sensed that the time was right. There was still considerable interest in this story, and Providence was still experiencing the same issues with gentrification and development. My pitch probably spoke to them more than the others, because I was very interested in the backstory and [how] their other art projects interfaced with the secret apartment.”
“It’s bringing you in on this incredible prank, which I love,” Workman said of his film. “However, I think what’s also fascinating [are] the various tentacles of the story, and what it reveals about gentrification and art, and what it means to do something with your friends, and about teamwork and friendship. What’s so incredible about the secret apartment is how it shape-shifts into all these different things.”
In an interview toward the end of the film, Lauren Rosati, associate curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, poses, “Is it a work of art? Is it a social experiment? Is it trespassing? Is it a prank? It’s maybe all of these things.” Seeing how each of these facets develops makes for a thought-provoking and engaging experience.
“Secret Mall Apartment” plays the week of May 26 at the M.V. Film Center, 79 Beach Road in Vineyard Haven. Visit mvfilmsociety.com for tickets and information.
