Amundson and Gour Earn Rockefeller Award

Garth Amundson and Pierre Gour, faculty members at Western Washington University, have been awarded a Bellagio Center Residency by the Rockefeller Foundation for their project titled “Homo-Home: Bi-National Queer Coupling.” 

Their residency will begin this summer at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center on the shore of Lake Como in northern Italy.

The Center's mission is to promote innovation and identify impact-oriented solutions to critical global problems. The Center, through conferences and residency programs, supports the work of scholars, artists, thought leaders, policymakers, and practitioners who share in the Foundation’s pioneering mission to “promote the well-being of humanity.”

Amundson, a professor of Art at Western, and Gour, an assistant professor of Art, have artistically collaborated for the last 29 years. Their work explores the perceptions and politics surrounding the domestic sphere and identity. They use collage and photo-scanning techniques to speak metaphorically about social construction. Amundson holds a master’s of Fine Art (MFA) from Syracuse University and Gour an MFA from the University of New Mexico.

Their work has been exhibited in South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and throughout North America.  They have completed several residency programs, both independently and collaboratively, including: Sculpture Space in New York; Cimelice Castle near Prague; Fundación Valparaíso in Spain; Lademoen in Norway, and a Fulbright in Mexico.

While at Bellagio, they will be researching and creating a body of work surrounding bi-national queer couples. Traditionally, queer couples have been forced to use the home as a safe-haven in a different manner than their straight counterparts; it becomes a nest and a place of security and self-definition without public scrutiny or the need to camouflage. 

As visual artists using selves-as-subject, Amundson and Gour question these ideas, addressing them within their collaborative process.

“Having had our own experiences expand our sense of empathy toward other bi-national queer couples, our work is a vehicle to generate new perspectives on ‘homo-homes,’” Amundson said.

The Bellagio Residency program offers academics, artists, thought leaders, policymakers, and practitioners a serene setting conducive to focused, goal-oriented work, and the unparalleled opportunity to establish new connections with fellow residents from a stimulating array of disciplines and geographies. The Bellagio Center community generates new knowledge to solve some of the most complex issues facing our world and creates art that inspires reflection and understanding on global and social issues. 

The Center has a record of major impact, from meetings that led to the Green Revolution and the Global AIDS vaccine initiative, to residencies that furthered the work of artist Glenn Ligon. This legacy, the serene work environment on the shore of Lake Como, the diverse groups of people, and the promise of future achievements make Bellagio an inspiring and productive forum for fostering positive change.