BOG - 15 Years of The Garden

Creative Direction

Curation

To mark 15 years of The Garden, Ciana worked with its founder Mark Grehan to curate ‘BOG – 15 Years of the Garden’ - an exhibition which featured more than 20 Irish creatives. The showcase which took place in Dublin’s Powerscourt Townhouse, invited Irish artists and craftspeople to explore the bog as both material and metaphor. Rooted by Grehan’s own personal connection to the boglands of Barna, West Galway where he grew up, the exhibition invited reflection on what we keep, what surfaces, and what lies beneath.

A series of short films by Dave O’Carroll was commissioned documenting Mark and his mother, Mary, as they work and walk through her garden and the local bog. Watch the full series here. Long-standing collaboration and close friend of Mark’s, photographer Doreen Kilfeather, documented both his birthplace and business place. In tribute to Mary, one of Doreen’s images - depicting her bejewelled hands holding a piece of bog cotton - was printed on a t-shirt and sold in-store.

Graphic designer Keith Nally developed the project’s visual identity. Grounded in a turf-brown palette, the logotype featured an angled serif on the ‘g’ in BOG, referencing the cut of turf from the bog. This theme extended to a bespoke tote bag designed by pattern cutter Leanne Keogh and crafted by We Make Good from traditional turf-sacking material.

Working with food artist Jeni Glasgow, a bog-inspired menu was created for the exhibition launch itself. Playfully titled Bog Standard, it reimagined quintessential Irish ingredients - from blood bonbons to griddle bread, butter and ‘bog-standard’ eggs - in a way that was both artful and playful.

Curation: Ciana March

Design: Keith Nally

Film: Dave O’Carroll

Photographer: Doreen Kilfeather 

Printing: Hugh Grehan, Atlantic Print & Design, Galway

Press: Rebecca McNamee

Commissioned by: Mark Grehan, The Garden