Luciana Janaqui news | introduction | experiments | exhibitions | CV | contact I’ll (really) keep my fingers crossed *But it costs a bit 2023, making prayers on demand, durations variable according to clients’ specifications Installation view at HYM3F｜Installation views at Etablissement d'en face Every time a friend shows their crossed fingers to me, saying, ‘I'll keep my fingers crossed’, I feel strange. ‘Keep…?’ Because a few seconds later, the crossed fingers will be definitely uncrossed. With a bit of disappointment, then, I just give a super superficial thank you to them. Of course I know it is just an idiom. Still, it somehow feels as if the seriousness of my wish has been belittled. One day, a friend of mine told me that she was waiting for the result of a lottery for her child to enter a nursery school. I thoughtlessly said, "I'll keep my fingers crossed!" After I went back home, not wanting to be a liar, I forced myself to cross my fingers and keep doing it. But I could only keep them crossed for an hour. While my fingers were becoming numb, I was thinking about a sadhu (ascetic monk) in India who kept his right arm raised for 45 years. During that hour, I just prayed for her good luck. All I could do was pray (with my right hand taken, as the index and middle fingers crossed and the thumb, ring and little fingers folded as in the peace sign, nothing else could be done; youtube, podcasts etc. were turned off so that I could concentrate). I later received news that the nursery school screening was successful, so maybe my (only) one hour of finger-crossing prayer had some impact. Apart from the validity of the act of 'praying for wishes', various human behaviours suggest that people believe (or want to believe) that praying is effective to some extent in achieving goals. In general, the amount of time and intensity of a prayer increases according to the magnitude of the wish. Sometimes, it may not be enough for just the person themself praying on their own. In such cases, people visit religious institutions for grand rituals where clerics pray for them. If we compensate for the lack of the time and intensity of our prayer by commissioning someone else to reinforce it, which costs money, isn’t it presumably that "having someone else pray for you" has a certain worthiness? If so… Praying for other people. I’d like to make it one of my livelihoods. I may be able to complement people’s prayers, compensating for what their prayers do not cover. Or I nominate myself as a subcontractor to pray for their wishes entirely, as a paid job. Even though I cannot devote my whole life, I can 'keep' my fingers crossed and I will ‘really’ do it as long as I am paid by the hour, which is the only thing I can do instead of waving a Shinto wand decorated with paper streamers. Process 1. The client fills in a prayer application form. 2. The client transfers the fee to the designated bank account. 3. I pray for the specified number of hours, keeping my fingers crossed. 4. The process completes with a postcard sent by me reporting that the prayer has been done. Hourly rate 15 euros + additional 15 euros for overheads; minimum of 3 hours. Click the image below to download the form.