Welcome

Welcome — mukae or yokoso — a simple title for what is likely a figure composition depicting the gesture of greeting or receiving a guest. The act of welcome in Japanese culture has elaborate protocols and visual cues: the bow, the angle of the body, the expression of pleasure at the visitor's arrival. Hanko's figure study of welcome would explore these subtle gestural and expressive registers, depicting the moment of greeting as a compositional subject that captures the particular quality of Japanese hospitality in its physical manifestation.