CAO PERROT Los Angeles - Paris Blurring the line between art and landscape has been a CAO PERROT leitmotiv for over a decade. This singular approach – making places for dreaming – has resulted in a diverse portfolio, which includes intimate gardens, public art installations, special events, and park design. CAO PERROT has completed the 7.5 hectare Expansion of Swarovski Kristallwelten (Wattens, Austria) featuring a monumental Crystal Cloud. Relevant past works include invitations to create gardens and public art installations at contemporary and historic sites: Pollen Garden at Versailles-Potager du Roi; Mimosa art installation in the Medici Fountain (Luxembourg Garden, Paris); Aerial Garden at the Tuileries Garden (Paris); and Cloud Terrace at Dumbarton Oaks (Washington, DC). In 2009, CAO PERROT won first place in an international design competition for Guangming Central Park (240 hectares), Shenzhen, China. Formally trained as landscape architects, but practicing as landscape artists, Andy Cao and Xavier Perrot embrace serendipity, trusting intuition as their guide. They juxtapose the landscape medium of sculpted earth and planting palettes with unexpected materials: recycled glass, mother-of-pearl, crystals, fishing line, etc. These materials come to life in outdoor settings, releasing or refracting light, elevating the inherent imperfections as beauty marks. Less about form, shape, and meaning, CAO PERROT’s work emphasizes the making. They wish to go beyond design and trends, inviting viewers into a dream environment. For Cao and Perrot, the ultimate luxury is to be immersed in the presence of light and silence, and to echo John Updike, “give the mundane its beautiful due”. CAO PERROT’s work has been widely published and exhibited at garden festivals and museums, including 2006 National Design Triennial, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York. The Architectural League of New York named CAO PERROT as "Emerging Voices 2013".