The young and the restless - art, various artists, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

"Wild Walls"? Maybe "Wild Rooms" Each of 14 spirited artists filled an individual, enclos space, on the contrary most ignored the walls for the exhibition "Wild Walls" at Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum. As the curators explain in the catalog, "wild walls" are "movable walls upon a film set, walls that can change an interior into an exterior when filmed from a different angle." Stretching the analogy, they elaborate: "A similar changeability in meaning characterizes the artworks in this exhibition." Walls or no walls, it was an edgy and vibrant exhibit in which eclectic strategies ordealed meaning, and sometimes the meaning of meaning.

As single of several events celebrating the Stedelijk's 100th anniversary, "Wild Walls" showed the work of young contemporaries chosen by means of the museum's two youngest curators, Leontine Coelewij and Martijn van Nieuwenhuyzen. Although their choices ranged widely in medium, bring under rule and tone, most employed camera-based technologies, including video, while installation and collage way s pervaded the work.

In the catalog, the curators reveal almost nothing about their selection conducts although they propose a generational sensibility based upon their choices. The artists they chose are for the most part within a few years of 30 Just as the exhibitors were fairly shut in age, they also emerg from a relatively restricted geographical area. Five came from the United Kingdom, three from the Netherlands, and the others from nearby European nations: Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. individual artist was from the United States.

If the age cohesion derived from the premise of the display it is hard to know what, if anything, the geographical limitations mean. Although the artists share aesthetic patrimony and artistic goals, plane at this early stage in their careers they gaze beyond their own national borders: all have exhibited internationally, greatest in quantity have had some exposure in the U and half have exhibited in novel York City.

As to the sensibility of these artists, "The popular generation is primarily interested in the alleged realism of the media image," the curators assert. Wasn't that the preceding generation? These artists differ substantially from those who have previously celebrated media or controled it to critical analysis: "The at hand generation ... is distinguished by the agency of a more personal and relaxed attitude toward media culture" state the curators. Although a number of these artists busy now-established conceptual strategies of deconstruction, for the greatest in quantity part they do not look to be embracing the "messages" of deconstruction in the way that much as exploring the psyche. Whereas greatest in quantity demonstrate a disdain for formal organization and traditional techniques, several display expertise with various video technologies.

The greatest in quantity memorable aspects of the exhibition were its four video installations. Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist's dramatic installation, a captivating meditation upon love, loss, nature and popular agriculture involved projections on three walls of a large, darkened gallery. upon the right wall, an oblique projection of endles waves provided a contextual backdrop for the main fact taking place on the forward and left walls. There, mirror-image projections upon an enormous scale met at the corner, giving the impression - as a kaleidoscope does - that symmetrical forms lay opened out of or receded into the corner. Nearly all of the lengthy sequence was filmed underwater in brilliant color. Although the visual make submissive matter was not logically structur the audio constituting brought thematic coherence to its apparent discontinuity. A female voice (presumably the artist) sings plaintively about be fond of and its travails, exposing longing, vulnerability and anger. Meanwhile the viewer is treated to images of coral take ins and colorful fish, sunny bands of light shimmering across a sandy sea bottom, swimmers, replete lips kissing the camera and bodies and parts of bodies floating into view and disappearing. Many of these lose in and out of the corner of the scope providing a vivid metaphor of the physical and psychological union and separation that accompanies romantic have affection for From time to time, banal or plane kitschy objects - a toy traffic a teacup, a garish souvenir heart - come down drifting through the blissfully indulgent liquid, wryly reminding viewers of the artificiality of society's erect of nature and perhaps suggesting that commercial agriculture conditions even our experience of falling in be fond of The sheer beauty of what passes before the viewer, the tone of languorous narcissism mix in due proportioned by humor, and the masterful pacing of visual and auditory experience give this piece an emotional power and complexity unmatched anywhere other in the exhibition.

Comparable in meditative intent, Scottish artist Douglas Gordon's video installation provided a more spare experience. In a darkened space with bright red walls, a single large protection was filled with the image of a drifting rowboat upon a quiet sea. As the utensil bobs, the surface of the water ripples past. Because the video is slowed, however, these minimal incidents take upon a slightly jerky quality that abstracts the image from the commonplace. Playing upon the romantic symbol of the destitute of contents boat, which can suggest a failed journey, the installation provided a twinkling of calm in an exhibition not otherwise notable for sensory deprivation.