Born in Gwangju, Yeon-gyun Kang has lived through the ups and downs of the nation’s modern history. Unlike in previous works in which he concentrated on a realistic technique based on watercolour, in Petrified Wood 2017–23, Kang examines the abstract quality of painting. This work is created using black ink and minimal colour on paper, eliminating any exuberant decorative elements. The predominantly black and white painting reminds us of the sharp and bold lines of a woodcut. Here, the artist no longer takes art as a mere medium for conveying messages. In his most recent works on paper from the Between Sky and Earth series (1981–ongoing), Kang revisited personal memories of the May 18 Democratic Movement and illustrated them with charcoal. Taking one step further than this, in Petrified Wood he uses ink to investigate a temporality that transcends incidents, experiences, sites, and testimony. Instead, Kang focuses on the flexibility embedded in all existence, which constantly changes over time and remains in the state of a tabula rasa (blank slate).