RED BOWL
Saint Lazare Leprosarum
WHITE DOME
Saint Barthelemy Collegiate Church
ASaint Barthelemy Collegiate Church
WHITE DOME
"White Dome" and "RedBowl"
installations deal with themes of man’s purification in both the physical and
metaphysical dimension, and the shift from sacred to secular.
Within the ruin walls of the Saint-Barthelemy Collegiate Church, a large cupola formed by thousands of suspended SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS crystal screate a rain of light, symbol of the soul’s purification by ascension to the divine. The floor is covered with cracked clay and sprouting shoots of wheats own at random during the exhibition to embody the movement of transformation and regeneration.
Within the ruin walls of the Saint-Barthelemy Collegiate Church, a large cupola formed by thousands of suspended SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS crystal screate a rain of light, symbol of the soul’s purification by ascension to the divine. The floor is covered with cracked clay and sprouting shoots of wheats own at random during the exhibition to embody the movement of transformation and regeneration.
CLOUD TERRACE
Dumbarton Oak Garden
CLOUD TERRACE
"Cloud Terrace takes the form of a hand‐sculpted wire mesh cloud suspended over the terrace and
embellished with 10,000 genuine Swarovski elements water‐drop crystals mirrored in a reflecting pool. The Arbor
Terrace is one of the most modified spaces in the Dumbarton Oaks Gardens.
Originally designed by Beatrix Farrand in the early 1930s as a simple
rectangular herb garden bordered on the west by a wisteria‐covered arbor and on the east and north by a hedge of
Kieffer pears, it was refashioned by Farrand’s former associate Ruth Havey in
the 1950s as a pot garden centered on a Rococo‐style parterre with low, Doria stone parapet walls. The
space can be hot and bright; Cao & Perrot’s installation is a response to
these conditions, extending the shade of the arbor across the terrace and
animating the space inside the parterre with an oval pool surrounded by
pebbles.
The project was supported by Swarovski elements, who provided the crystals used for the installation. It was organized by John Beardsley, Director of Garden and Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks, and Gail Griffin, Director of Gardens."
Dumbarton Oaks Press Release (March 28, 2012)
The project was supported by Swarovski elements, who provided the crystals used for the installation. It was organized by John Beardsley, Director of Garden and Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks, and Gail Griffin, Director of Gardens."
Dumbarton Oaks Press Release (March 28, 2012)
CAO & PERROT STUDIO
Drawing
on diverse cultural backgrounds, Vietnamese American landscape artist Andy Cao
and French landscape artist Xavier Perrot create hybrid environments - a blend
of art and landscape to make a place for dreaming.
Themes of migration, diaspora, and cultural assimilation are an important subtext in their work, whose east-meets-west sensibility is guided by intuition and emotions. They draw from memories, fashion, photography, poetry, and art to craft incidental landscapes, fusing dreams and reality.
Cao & Perrot Studio is collaborative in nature. Each of their projects is a hand-made work of love. The quest to experiment with new ideas takes them to exotic locales where they recontextualize everyday materials (fishing lines, cut crystals, recycled glass, mother-of-pearl, wire mesh), often collaborating with local artisans. These journeys , become a form of reverse pedagogy. This formless-based design lies at the heart of Cao and Perrot’s creative process, where serendipity, imagination and beauty coexist through Incidental Place Making.
Through observation and unlearning, they weave a personal narrative into dreamlike environments that defy specific meaning yet invite the viewer into a contemplative world of color and sensuality. Revealing “imperfection” as beauty marks gives their work a spontaneous, artisanal feel.
The projects - both temporary and permanent - cut across commercial, artistic and residential boundaries. Cao and Perrot work in diverse scales, and feel as comfortable designing the new 600 acre Guangming Central Park (Shenzhen, China) to an intimate courtyard installation for the fashion house Kenzo headquarters in Paris, France.
Themes of migration, diaspora, and cultural assimilation are an important subtext in their work, whose east-meets-west sensibility is guided by intuition and emotions. They draw from memories, fashion, photography, poetry, and art to craft incidental landscapes, fusing dreams and reality.
Cao & Perrot Studio is collaborative in nature. Each of their projects is a hand-made work of love. The quest to experiment with new ideas takes them to exotic locales where they recontextualize everyday materials (fishing lines, cut crystals, recycled glass, mother-of-pearl, wire mesh), often collaborating with local artisans. These journeys , become a form of reverse pedagogy. This formless-based design lies at the heart of Cao and Perrot’s creative process, where serendipity, imagination and beauty coexist through Incidental Place Making.
Through observation and unlearning, they weave a personal narrative into dreamlike environments that defy specific meaning yet invite the viewer into a contemplative world of color and sensuality. Revealing “imperfection” as beauty marks gives their work a spontaneous, artisanal feel.
The projects - both temporary and permanent - cut across commercial, artistic and residential boundaries. Cao and Perrot work in diverse scales, and feel as comfortable designing the new 600 acre Guangming Central Park (Shenzhen, China) to an intimate courtyard installation for the fashion house Kenzo headquarters in Paris, France.
