In 1946 British leader Winston Churchill made his famous speech at Westminster College, USA in which he used the term ‘Iron Curtain’. As the Cold War strengthened, the term became a short hand reference to the symbolic, ideological and physical division of Europe. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 marked the end of the Cold War.

Today, ideological conflict seems to have almost disappeared from our daily recollection.? During the Cold War period, life in China was infused with a sense of collective ideology, however that collective ideological conflict between nations has lessened. As a consequence, people have become more self-absorbed, and less concerned with collective experience and politics.? But the question is, if this is our daily life, what will tomorrow bring?

Xiao Xiong’s work confronts a globalizing economy that is gradually taking over the world; a kind of ideology constructed from a pluralistic way of regarding financial empire that is full of contradictions, with little concern for social or cultural consequences that arise from the constant flux inherent within regional and international politics.? Xiao Xiong seeks to re-think the presence of ideals in today’s value system; questioning how new ideas of ideology have become embedded in people’s daily existence.? The artist isn’t trying to portray a certain point of view, or attempt to provide a solution for what may be considered a problem.? Rather he questions whether “ideology” is a thing of the past, present or future?? Does it only exist in philosophical texts, or does it exist in our everyday reality?? Is it a psychological or physical thing?? The motivation for posing these questions comes neither from paranoia during times of perceived peace nor from groundless fears.?

Seeking that sense of collective ideological conflict – whose presence was so clear during the Cold War yet seems to have been forgotten in contemporary society – we discover it in the most unlikely place: hidden amongst our daily lives.