Enacted Garden
Gerry Blake and Carmel Ennis
PhotoIreland
English
Softcover
Edition of 200
36 pages
148 x 210 mm
2026
Gardens are versatile spaces, ranging from suburban lawns to botanical parks, from open allotments to private enclosures. They reflect our desire to create personal paradises, yet gardens are not natural and “paradise” requires work to shape and maintain it. From cultivation to recreation, gardens are formed through repeated acts over time. There is an interplay between labour and leisure, control and growth. Gardeners, workers, visitors, and plant life become participants in an ongoing, time-based performance. Gerry Blake and Carmel Ennis visited a variety of gardens, and in each location they explored how the garden is enacted by its own vitality, along with the life and energy of those who use it.
(Source: https://www.thelibraryproject.ie/products/enacted-garden)
About the Artists
Blake’s photographic practice centres on the individual in their surroundings, examining how people are shaped by the environmental situations they inhabit.
https://www.gerryblake.net
(Source: https://www.gerryblake.net/biography)
Carmel believes in creating communities among plants as well as among people. Trained in social science and shaped by the lands of Athy and the living culture of Copenhagen where she lived for many years, she is now a practicing gardener living in Dublin. Her gardening manifesto is ‘not everything that is sown or planted survives’. Keep it light. Don’t overly disturb soil, as this is home to many organisms and insects. Don’t overburden other species with our good intentions. Keep hoping.
https://www.carmelennis.com
(Source: https://www.dublindancefestival.ie/growing-spring-as-if-trying-not-to-own-the-earth)
About the Publisher
PhotoIreland grows the reputation of Irish artists globally through a 360 degree support system and platform for contemporary photography, activated through a diversity of projects. These include events such as PhotoIreland Festival and Halftone print fair amongst others; resources such as the PhotoIreland Collection, a specialised research library of photobooks, and Ireland’s Art Bookshop, The Library Project; via publishing with projects such as OVER Journal and TLP Editions; professional development support through networking and consultancy opportunities; and empowering early and mid-career photographers via our international partnerships, most relevantly through Creative Europe co-funded platforms such as FUTURES and Parallel.
https://photoireland.org
(Source: https://photoireland.org/about-photoireland)
TLP Editions’ goal is to create a collection of emerging talent and new projects in the form of accessible and inexpensive publications
(Source: https://photoireland.org/project/tlp-editions)
