Shi Lian Dong
Dadaocheng Cisheng Temple
URBAN EXPLORER Rook is attracted to dense urban zones with lots of lanes and alleys away from the big tourist sites and landmarks
The Artwork Rook's process is a painstaking one. Before even setting pen to paper, he doggedly walks each street, lane, and alleyway taking pictures of buildings in a gargantuan effort at documentation. When the time comes to draw the map, he first lays out the main streets and lanes using online maps as his guide, and then fills in the details, slowly, over a series of several months, a skill that – with no technical training – had to be honed by trial and error until it became almost instinctive. Though there are seldom any signs of human activity in Rook's maps – there are few cars or people – they are nevertheless intimately personal works, with a character that elevates them above the purely technical. “The element of personalization is what makes these maps special: It's my journey around the city and my view of what I found interesting there. If you look at the satellite view for an online map, it's very chaotic – you're looking at a mass of buildings and you can't identify where your life is taking place. When people look at one of my maps, they can say instantly – that’s where I live; my life is there.” Although Rook is clearly fascinated with cities, some of his most powerful work in fact confronts the danger of free-reign urbanization. His “Insect Series” – featuring silhouettes of dragonflies, hornets, locusts, praying mantises, and spiders covered in urban sprawl – was inspired by his encounters with urbanization while hiking Taiwan's forested mountains. The problem, of course, is not limited to Taiwan, and the cities covering the insects in his paintings are variously modeled on cities like Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, New York, Chicago, and Detroit. “I see this has happened all over the world,” he says, “and you rarely notice it's happening, because it happens on the edges of cities, where you don't go to very often.”
Lin Wu Hu Ancestral House/ Chen-Wey Teahouse
Dadaocheng Wharf Evacuation Gate 5
Taipei Xia-Hai City God Temple
Yongle Fabric Market
Yanping Riverside Park
Map of the Dadaocheng area north of Taipei Main Station