Heaven And A Hard Place

In the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve live out their post-banishment days somewhere “east of Eden”. In Frank Keane’s photo book, Heaven And A Hard Place, the rocks that form Dun Laoghaire pier appear to be doing something similar.

Keane’s playful lens finds subtle anthropomorphic details among these rocks, presenting a gallery of exiles standing fast in their earthly roles with almost military stoicism. The quarry, by contrast, appears as their leafy, bucolic place of origin. It’s in this contrast that the book finds an unexpected poignancy.

But although Heaven And A Hard Place flirts with animism (the idea of spirits inhering in objects of nature) and hints at a critique of industrial development, its playful tone makes it cunningly elusive. Ultimately, it may have more to say about our interpretive inclinations than the “true nature of things”. Perhaps, here, the anthropomorphic takes the mick out of the Anthropocene.