Artist Michael Townsend and other members of his collective actually built a 750 square foot room out of cinderblock in the parking garage of the mall. With supplies bought at home depot they built themselves a little apartment with a non-descript utility door as its entrance. On the inside it was fully furnished and and up to eight people lived there any given time since 2003. They even had a playstation until a burglar broke in and stole it. They had everything but running water, they used the mall bathrooms for that. All of this was inspired by an ad for the mall which featured a “an enthusiastic female voice talking about how great it would be if you (we) could live at the mall.” So the project was born, he built the dwelling “out of a compassion to understand the mall more and life as a shopper.” The dream finally died before he could make the apartment “super-sweet” with laminated wood flooring and other perks. Townsend and a visiting artist from Hong Kong walked into the room and were greeted by three security guards. He pleaded no contest to a trespassing charge and was sentenced to probation. Check out the Tape Art Collaborative’s video on youtube and the CNN video after the jump.
Artist Secretly Lived in Providence , RI Mall…For 4 Years!
October 5th, 2007 by Samuel Venuti · 1 Comment
Tags: art&design · interior design · news · DIY · lifestyle · providence · crazy fucks · balls
1 response so far ↓
banana // Oct 10, 2007 at 2:23 pm
i love this story.
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