Final Rating: 4.5/5
Opened in 1999, the Providence Place Mall is the biggest mall in Rhode Island. From its inception, Providence Place has been controversial: though a successful tourist draw, the construction of the mall required rerouting rivers and train tracks and impacted the skyline. Even worse, the mall displaced several lower-income residences, effectively separating the rich and poor in Providence along a physical boundary.
After his home was demolished in the wake of the mall’s opening, artist Michael Townsend had an idea: what about living in the mall? Secret Mall Apartment, directed by Jeremy Workman, tells the story of a secret, livable condominium built by Townsend and seven artist friends in the negative space of the Providence Place Mall.
Secret Mall Apartment uses interviews with former inhabitants of the secret apartment to tell their story. Townsend provides a wealth of contemporary footage shot by the artists on Pentax Optio cameras as they were documenting their work. While the footage is low quality, it’s shockingly well photographed, especially considering that, according to Townsend, it was footage never intended to see the light of day.
Several artists and government officials from around Providence are interviewed to round out the exploration of the mall, the city, and Townsend’s work and reputation as an artist.
Under the guidance of director Jeremy Workman, Secret Mall Apartment uses the apartment as a gateway to profile Providence Place and the effect it had on the community. Interviews with local government officials paint Providence Place as an ambitious project to revitalize a city whose glory days as an important manufacturing center were in the past. At the same time, interviews with artists and community workers depict the mall as a symbol of an ongoing gentrification that robbed Providence of its personality.
Townsend mentions truly hating Providence Place, a giant eyesore looming menacingly on the horizon while he and his friends were being evicted from their homes. Contemporary interviews with mall goers reinforce the divisive nature of Providence Place. “The mall will bring in a better class of people,” one woman says in an early promo for the incoming mall.
The construction site of Providence Place, and later the mall itself, convey the promise of a grand future for Rhode Island’s capital city. Secret Mall Apartment contrasts this vision with the work of Townsend. Townsend’s art is fascinated by the here and now. Best known for “tape-art” – essentially graffiti made from masking tape – much of Townsend’s work is designed to be easily destructible once it’s no longer needed. In building the apartment in Providence Place (which Townsend cheekily titles “Week in the Mall”), there’s little consideration given to what the “finished” work would even be. Throughout its existence, the apartment serves as a base of operations for guerrilla art, a hangout space for Townsend and his friends, an ongoing domestic project, and a prank to poke fun at gentrification. But Townsend never imagines too far beyond the current moment. At any point, the apartment could be discovered, and that would likely be the end of “Week in the Mall”.
The theme of impermanence seeps through the documentary. Though Providence Place set out to be a permanent landmark, bringing prominence back to Providence, it too has begun to succumb to the march of time. The mall has undergone renovations, lost flagship stores, and fallen on hard times following the pandemic. In a hilariously ironic twist, the film states that in 2022, Providence Place even announced they were considering building residential spaces within the mall.
Secret Mall Apartment is as hilarious as it is poignant. Boasting a charismatic cast and unique production, this stranger-than-fiction story becomes more gripping than fiction as well. In Workman’s hands, a “Week in the Mall” becomes a means to examine the changing face of a city, and the profound effect that art can have on society.
Secret Mall Apartment was seen during the 2024 Hot Docs Film Festival. Check out our Hot Docs wrap up podcast.
