Working Independently and as a collaborative team, Garth Amundson and Pierre Gour's work explores the perceptions and politics surrounding the home and domestic sphere and identity politics. Amundson holds an MFA from Syracuse University and Gour from the University of New Mexico.

Cut-It-Out
An exploration spearheaded by Amundson & Gour's investigation into the historic application and use of vintage photographs. Over the last five years they have been concentrating on work that addresses topics ranging from domestic motifs to immigration and identity politics. For this body of work, they have created large scale digital 111cm x 290cm prints using hundreds of vintage photographs found in thrift stores and antique shops as well as personal snapshots which they have been collecting for the past 24 years. According to the artists, "These photographs metaphorically become historical evidence of our own lost identity. Social historian Judith Gutman expressed that 'photographs may be our most perfect cultural artifact.' We are interested in this notion of artifact / evidence not as a means of looking at the past but an expression of the present day." Seven of these pieces were created specifically for exhibition at CANDYLAND/rum för samtidig konstupplevelse, Stockholm, Sweden.

Ghost-Written
The narratives in the photographs are embedded like any other hidden history; they reveal themselves through the interaction with the viewer. The fiction created within this dialogue completes the link of communication. The prints are selected from hundreds of vintage photographs collected by the artists over the past 23 years. These appropriated studio portraits act as metaphors for different situations, provoking questions in the viewer's mind. Whether it is two men engaged in fraternal camaraderie or a young boy in costume, each image conceals and reveals fragments of a story.

Sub-divisions
Sub-divisions was created during an eight-month Fulbright investigation of the themes of domesticity, immigration, and national identity. The photographs are composed of Mexican landscapes with incomplete houses under construction called Obra Negras ("black works") contrasted with vintage appropriated images of the idealized American home. This body of work was fueled by their experience with immigration laws, which threatened their sense of home. The Federal Defense of Marriage Act bars same-sex couples from the right to sponsor an immigrant spouse for permanent residence. Most same-sex bi-national couples are forced to separate because the U.S. government views them as strangers under the law. Sub-divisions addresses the universality and fragility of their collective dream of having a home.

Happy Happy Happy
This sound-based piece is designed and constructed from 24 decorative French horns. It is physically constructed from salvaged headphone speakers, an inexpensive portable stereo and audio captures, designed and built with free sound-editing software. The sound emanating from the horns is the hush whispers of the artists repeating "Happy happy happy." This quiet chant is a celebration of the artists' 24 year-long relationship. The undulating intonation and intensity metaphorically illustrate the realities of any long-term relationship.

Menu
Appropriating nostalgic imagery of restaurants, kitchens, and table settings, Amundson and Gour explore the perceptions and politics surrounding food. The artists superimposed patterns of various geometric shapes onto images from antiquated cookbooks and culinary magazines, with each pattern's shape mirroring contours within the primary image. To give the prints a subtle depth, they were perforated by hand to create a lace-like grid. Highly saturated colors allude to a romanticized era that has passed, but is undeterminable.

Inventory
A collaborative record of 20 years of collecting things together. Each large-scale pigment-print documents five different collections of hundreds of objects, such as tin wind-up toys, 50's ceramics, and vintage photographs. Contemporary art has examined the museum archive extensively through cataloguing, categorization and presentation. However, the idea of dissecting more personal collections is new territory. While exploring ideas of anxiety, autobiography, and taxonomy, Amundson and Gour's work goes beyond posing the question of why people collect, and seeks to understand how people delineate their existence through the amassment of things.