Ronny Heiremans

extension#Study#01 (hands)
extension#Study#01 (hands)

Traveling in New Mexico I documented the yearly re-plastering of the St-Francis Church in Ranchos de Taos. This Spanish mission church from the 18th century is entirely  built with soil. The adobes, earth blocks that have dried in the sun, form the skeleton of the building. Three layers of plaster, mixed with straw and supplied with a finishing layer of fine clay, give this monolithic building its actual shape. The fragile architecture needs regular maintenance, year after year, generation after generation, or else the building would simply wash away. This ongoing process, bigger than one man’s life, forms the starting point around which I have developed this piece. As such the hands that accomplish all the work are the subject of this preliminary study.