Catalogue The Fortune Teller

Richtje Reinsma has dozens of small personal rituals and agreements that she must keep. ‘I feel a sense of shame, as I am not just mildly superstitious, but constantly and to the extreme.’ Some atheists regard religion and spiritual matters as a form of out-dated self-deception, not simply a mistake, but a cowardly way of avoiding facing up to the harsh reality. This is incomprehensible for Reinsma, who believes that we must all find a way of accepting the fact that we will die, or that we can become ill. A ritual can help us to experience and accept it. She obtains this magical effect by placing the works she makes within the tradition of a ritual.