Review: ‘Secret Mall Apartment’ Shows Art Knows No Bounds Even At the American Mall

Jeremy Workman’s documentary Secret Mall Apartment follows a fun four-year experiment celebrating art in all its underappreciated forms while tracking the decline of the American mall.

I’m usually against white nonsense. I avoid Billy Joel songs at karaoke, saying “Fistpound” before fistpounding someone, and Wes Anderson movies. But occasionally — occasionally! — white nonsense can be done for good, as is the case with Jeremy Workman’s engaging documentary Secret Mall Apartment.

When a group of Rhode Island artists is kicked out of their space due to gentrification, they decide to give the real estate developers a big middle finger by living in an unoccupied cubby in the Providence Place Mall for four years. From 2003 to 2007, they make the 700-foot space a home with couches, entertainment centers, and china closets by loading these items up a ladder. (Just as a mother can summon strength to lift a car to save her baby, all bets are off when a group of artists have an idea.)

Secret Mall Apartment turns its focus on Michael Townsend, the mastermind behind the space, for his adaptability and awareness of art in overlooked places. In one section of the film, Workman delves into Townsend’s commitment to “tape art” in children’s hospitals, at the Oklahoma City Bombing memorial, and around post-9/11 Manhattan. Through this lens, the documentary expands outward from the mall incident and demonstrates art as a tool for curiosity, pushing boundaries, and affecting change one person at a time.

“No part of me had any interest in duping security,” says Townsend as he loads cinder blocks from Home Depot into his car to carry to the secret space. “I just wanted to do my job.”

The doc keenly examines the white privilege at play to coexist in an illegal room, coming and going as you please, for years without being noticed. All of the artists interviewed admit they never had any fear for bodily harm or death from a cop because of their skin color. Just another reason why this artistic project is more than just a hole in the wall.

Secret Mall Apartment is playing in select theaters, expanding to New York on March 26 and Los Angeles and additional cities on April 2.