Latest news with #JeremyWorkman
Hypebeast
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hypebeast
Inside the Artist-Run 'Secret Mall Apartment'
Summary Back in 2003, a group of Rhode Island artists transformed a forgotten corner of Providence Place mall into a secret 750-square-foot headquarters–now their story is hitting the big screen. The group is the focus of a new documentary,Secret Mall Apartment, which made its debut atSXSWlast spring. Directed by Jeremy Workman and produced byJesse Eisenberg, the film centers around artist Michael Townsend, the 'ringleader' of the covert operation, and the seven other members of the informal art collective, oscillating between archival footage and present-day interviews recounting what went down during their stay. The project, formally known asMalllife, blurred the lines between installation, performance art and life, questioning the nature of public and private space and creating a home in the most unexpected places. For years, the artists quietly inhabited the space in shifts, living out, as Workmannoted, the childhood fantasy of living inside a mall. That dream came to an end when Townsend was discovered by a group of security guards in 2007, but their legacy lives on, captured in hours of grainy footage filmed on early 2000s Pentax cameras. 'No one was ever supposed to see that footage,' Townsend toldThe Washington Post. And yet, it's exactly this raw, unfiltered glimpse into underground life that gives the film its cinematic flavor. Secret Mall Apartmenthas started rollout in select theaters across the U.S. Head to the film'swebsitefor more information on how to purchase tickets.
Washington Post
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
They built a secret apartment in the mall. Now it's a movie.
Jeremy Workman thought he was being pranked. How else would you react to someone telling you they once secretly lived inside a shopping mall for four years? The documentary filmmaker had been capturing footage of a domino-toppling artist in Greece in 2019 when he encountered another American, Michael Townsend, who was decorating buildings there with temporary murals made of low-adhesive tape. Townsend watched Workman as he interviewed the domino toppler, and the two men established enough rapport for Townsend to trust the director with his own revelation:
New York Times
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Secret Mall Apartment' and the Blurred Line Between Life and Art
What is art? Everyone has a different definition, not just at this moment in history but across eras. Art is a pretty picture. Art is what's in a museum. Art is what makes us human. Art is something to sell, or buy, or make, or make fun of. Art is everything, or nothing at all. Defining art isn't the stated aim of 'Secret Mall Apartment' (in theaters), Jeremy Workman's new documentary about artists who in 2003 managed to create and live undetected for four years in an apartment nestled in a shopping mall in Providence, R.I. That sounds bizarre because it is. Inspired by a commercial for the mall, Providence Place, in which a mother claims she wishes she could live there because it would make shopping so convenient, the artists found an empty, secluded space away from the retail corridors and planned a kind of performance art happening: They'd live there for a week, documenting it, subtly poking fun at developers' obsessions with so-called underutilized spaces. It seems like a practical joke, but the context was deadly serious, as Workman shows by structuring the film akin to a spiderweb. At the center is the mall apartment itself and the reasons the artists ended up staying several years. This story is built out with interviews with the participants — many of whom had never revealed their involvement — and with footage they shot on the tiny digital cameras we used to tote around back in the mid-aughts, small enough to fit in an Altoids tin. Sprawling from this central story — full of funny anecdotes about almost getting caught and their solutions to problems like an undetectable wall — is a sober set of concerns. Chief among them is the way that city officials and developers were addressing urban decay in Providence, and how the centerpiece of their solution was meant to be the mall. Workman makes ample use of news video to demonstrate how locals talked about the project at the time, including working-class residents who noted that the planned shops and the positioning of the mall entrance away from the less affluent part of the city signaled that it wasn't meant for them at all. He also enlists a crew to construct a full-scale model of the apartment so that the original dwellers can experience it again. But can an apartment be art? Yes, the movie suggests — if you understand art to be fused with life, a way of existing rather than just something you make and sell. Art can disrupt the ruling logic of whatever world we're living in. The de facto head of the project was Michael Townsend, who had taught many of the participants in a summer program at the Rhode Island School of Design and had imbued them with a sense that, as they put it, the lines between art and life were very porous and that aesthetics could be a good unto itself. To make something that nobody could own, that nobody could put in a museum, but that could perform its own small resistance against an economy that thrummed along on the rails of commerce, of buying and buying and buying: That was the good. Eventually the apartment was discovered, although Townsend was the only person linked to it (and remains banned from Providence Place). But 'Secret Mall Apartment' makes a compelling case that the project reverberates through the lives of the artists, and maybe even the city, to this day. Art doesn't have to be in a museum to be valuable; it doesn't have to be own-able, repeatable or even make sense to everyone. If it changes a few lives, then it's changed the world.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Secret Mall Apartment' director previews documentary at RIC event
Jeremy Workman, director of the upcoming documentary Secret Mall Apartment, visited Rhode Island College (RIC) on Wednesday night for a behind-the-scenes Q&A and a first look at how the project was brought to life. Read more on
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Secret Mall Apartment' documentary to premiere at Providence Place
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — If you've ever visited the Providence Place mall, you may have been asked, 'Did you know someone lived in this mall for years and no one knew?' Perhaps you brushed that off as an urban legend. Turns out, it really happened. The upcoming documentary 'Secret Mall Apartment' explores how a group of people pulled off the feat. The film tells true story of eight artists from Rhode Island who built a secret apartment inside the capital city's bustling mall in 2003, which turned into a four-year-long residency—undetected and extensively documented. Directed by Jeremy Workman and executive produced by Jesse Eisenberg, 'Secret Mall Apartment' has already been screened in Boston and Newport. Now, it's finally coming to the big screen in the place where it all began. ALSO READ: Changes coming to Providence Place as receivers try to turn the mall around In 2007, the secret 750-square-foot space was discovered, and the artists were forced to leave. Among them was public artist Michael Townsend, who said he was the one caught and arrested. While a judge determined their actions weren't criminal, Townsend was still charged with trespassing. As a result, Townsend said he was placed on probation for six months and banned from Providence Place mall for life. Now, nearly 18 years later, Townsend—often known both as 'the guy who lived in the mall' and 'the guy who invented tape art'—is reflecting on the experience as the story returns to the spotlight. 'The Secret Mall Apartment became folklore, and it was also international news for a good six or seven months,' Townsend said. 'The interest in the story has remained persistent, and it's a joy that it's finally in movie form so people can see what happened. It's also a celebration of not just ourselves as artists but other artists and thinkers in Providence at that time.' Despite the documentary's upcoming release, Townsend still isn't sure if he's allowed to return to Providence Place. 'I haven't been contacted by the mall,' he said. 'I hope I can go back. That'd be really nice. I'd love to be there for all the showings of the film, for the Q & A's and to meet people at the nexus of this story. My fingers are crossed.' So, what was it? A prank? A work of art? A social experiment? Townsend said the project stemmed from a period of rapid development in Providence. When the mall opened in August 1999, several nearby mill buildings—many of which housed artists—were torn down for new projects. 'Those artists spent years scrambling to save other historic mill buildings and also dealing with the loss of their homes,' Townsend explained. Amid those struggles, Townsend and his fellow artists shifted their focus on how to keep these communities and allow them to remain and thrive in Providence—eventually leading them to the mall. 'In our exploration of the mall, we found a space that was underdeveloped and turned it into a condo,' he said. '…That was a slow development process where we wanted to take our time and build a domestic space that felt like it was filling the space of losing a home by making a home.' Townsend described the collaboration with the seven other artists as 'the backbone' as they were dealing with various deeply emotional projects and 'unsolvable' feelings that revolved around loss. 'That collection of art projects were just ways we were trying to navigate the things we were dealing with in our day to day emotional life,' he said. 'The Secret Mall Apartment was just one of those things.' The documentary, as suggested by its trailer, delves into themes of gentrification, capitalism, and commodification while portraying the living space as an 'alternate universe within the real world.' According to its Letterboxd description, the secret apartment was 'far more than a prank' and became a 'deeply meaningful place for all involved.' 'Secret Mall Apartment' will premiere on March 21 at Providence Place Cinemas 16 and IMAX—a short walk from where the story unfolded. The film is expected to play in select theaters in the following weeks before a nationwide release. NEXT: Lost demo tape of Talking Heads' 'Psycho Killer' resurfaces at RISD Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
