That the body is a site of discourse and a space for deliberation is not a mere metaphor for Moisés Patrício, an initiated Candomblé priest, who has literally made his own hand his primary artistic and spiritual medium and material. Since 2004, Patrício has been reading his palm, allowing his hand to activate other beings and objects as he invites them to find space in his hand, offering its contents and messages to humanity and the spirits. Despite the histories of disenfranchisement, dehumanization, and subjugation, African peoples around the world have tried to keep the spirit of offering alive, whether they be material or immaterial, such as ‘the pact of joy’ offering that Patrício’s grandfather always spoke to him about. And as many of these ancestors have made clear, these offerings do not expect something in return—it is an offer to the universe. A gift that is not transactional like the colonial, extractivist, and capitalist models of giving that demand a multifold and disproportionate return, this series of photographs, Aceita?, asks the viewer, the beholder, the world, if they are ready to accept a non-transactional world system that embodies a generosity for generosity’s sake, irrespective of profit. 

Work in the exhibition: Aceita? [Do you accept?] (2013–ongoing), photo series, 50 × 50 cm. Courtesy of Estudio Ikoritá