As a title, the phrase A Potent Force makes reference to the subtle, lyrical (Duan Jiayu) and introspective (Hu Xiaoyuan), intellectual prowess that characteristics these conceptual plays with painting and video works. There is a social-cultural shift in the generational gap that seperates them, which is reflected in the topics they explore as well as the mediums chosen to express these. If a particular concern for Duan Jianyu is the complexity of human society, its bubbling desires, grand ambitions, lofty ideals and the innate weaknesses that are so often its failings, conversely, for Hu Xiaoyuan. art is a means to examine the self, as a purposeful sentient being; as the raison d'etre for existence, for it there is no reason then existence becomes a nihilistic, future void.