Wednesday, October 10, 2007

"My whole body of work involves trespassing"

The Providence Journal had a story last week on artist Michael Townsend, who constructed "a secret studio apartment in a storage area in the Providence Place mall, where he and others stayed on and off for nearly four years." He ended up under arrest, but pleaded no contest to trespassing and was sentenced to probation. The paper's editorial board is "glad the law will treat the squatter lightly. ... The apartment’s amusement value far outpaces any loss of face to the mall or its crack security team — whose snookering only goes to show that guards have higher priorities and real criminals to protect us from."

Townsend has a web site about the project here. Greg Allen notes another body of work by Townsend.