Living at the mall
Michael Townsend, and seven other artists, moved into a secret apartment inside a shopping center for four years as a means of protest against property development. Mike and friends occupied the 750-square-foot underground space in Providence Place, RI thanks to a chance discovery. Mike was a keen jogger and on his daily run he noticed the unused area underneath the recently erected Providence Shopping Mall. Despite wondering what could be hidden inside the space, he didn’t initially think anything further of it. Four years later, Townsend’s own condo home in the historic mill district was under threat from the same mall developers. Amid a slew of protests that lasted two years, the artist and several others were eventually forced out to make way for a supermarket car park. Mike remembered the vacant room he discovered during the mall’s construction. The displaced friends decided the fight was still far from over and hatched a plan to covertly live in the mall as form of retribution. They made a living space equipped with a TV and a PlayStation below Providence Park shopping mall. “Over Christmas 2003, radio ads for the Providence Place Mall featured an enthusiastic female voice talking about how great it would be if you could live at the mall,” explained Townsend on his website.
“The central theme of the ads was that the mall not only provided a rich shopping experience but also had all the things that one would need to survive and lead a healthy life.” Townsend then decided it was perfect place “to develop the developer.” He explained: “The new plan wasn’t just to live in the mall for just a week, it was now simply to live in the mall.” It quickly became apparent that the area had not been touched since the building was completed and appeared to be hidden away from a security team. The room was filled with debris and leftover cables, the group of friends set about removing the leftover materials from the disused space, sneaking most things in and out of complex in their backpacks. The group later built a cinderblock wall and utility door to keep the loft hidden. Inside, it was fully furnished and even equipped with a PlayStation 2. They at some points they lived in the secret apartment for more than three weeks at a time. Townsend had grand plans to finish up a kitchen, but plans were cut short when mall security guards noticed the arrival of a visiting artist from Hong Kong. Townsend insisted that “the entire endeavor was done out of a compassion to understand the mall more and life as a shopper,” but his art project ultimately landed him a misdemeanor charge for trespassing. Mike avoided jail and was given a probation deal.
Mall Mischief
An atheist comes into a mall parking lot…
She can’t find a parking spot, so she says “God, if you give me parking spot, I will go back to church again.”
Two minutes later she says, “Never mind I found one.”
I’m bored,
Think I will go to the mall, find a great parking spot and sit in my car with my back up lights on.
Did you hear about the architect who had an unhealthy obsession with designing overly intricate shopping malls?
He had a complex complex complex.
What’s the biggest challenge Saudi teenagers face?
Losing their mom in the mall.
October 31st Birthdays
1993 – Vanessa Marano, 2000 – Danielle Rose Russell, 1994 – Nadine Lustre, 1998 – Sydney Park
1996 – Mateo Arias, 1964 – Rob Schmeider, 1952 – Nick Saban, 1936 – Michael Landon