Everyone needs time for a little coffee and contemplation — especially if you’re a cantankerous small-town police chief who finds himself caught up in a supernatural catastrophe, inheriting an unpredictable daughter and a mission to save the world. That’s what artist Yusuke Hanai captured with Coffee and Contemplation, a sculpture and print collaboration featuring everyone’s favorite Stranger Things crankster, Jim Hopper (played by David Harbour in the series). Hanai is best known for his almost crude illustration style of portraying slackers and curmudgeons, an aesthetic he says lent itself quite well to creating a representation of Hopper.
“I didn’t like his crass, selfish cop character much in Season 1,” Hanai admits. “But as I learned more about his past, I understood why he was the way he was. I like to see and draw people with personality, even if they’re clumsy and quirky rather than perfect.”
Coffee and Contemplation by Yusuke Hanai and AllRightsReserved, $500
Hopper’s bad-tempered but ultimately compassionate personality comes through in the sculpture, which depicts the character in his police uniform, an empty cup of coffee in one hand and a pen in the other. Fans of Stranger Things will recognize this as a reference to the poignant moment from Season 3 of the series, when Hopper writes Eleven a touching letter to express his feelings about being her newly adoptive father. Eleven doesn’t read the letter until the end of the season, at which point Hopper is presumed dead, and it’s one of the more emotionally moving moments of the show.
“Hopper is a slovenly middle-aged man,” Hanai says. “He’s a man who has been through a lot in his life — he’s tired, but he still wants to have hope for the future. As a father of two daughters myself, I felt the joy and loneliness in their separation.”
Hanai worked with Hong Kong-based creative studio AllRightsReserved to create the statue, which was initially released as a 1-meter-tall floor sculpture with accompanying print (the current tabletop version is just under a foot). Brand representative Yoho Yung says that when it came to finding the perfect artist to create such a specific collaboration, Hanai was the man for the job.
“Our whole team are fans of Stranger Things,” Yung tells Tudum. “We love the art direction and storyline for each character, but especially the storyline of Jim Hopper’s letter to Eleven in Season 3. That inspired us to create Hopper’s letter in Hanai’s handwriting included with the sculpture and we hope that detail resonates with collectors when they see it.”
Hanai’s Stranger Things Jim Hopper Coffee and Contemplation is available exclusively at Netflix Shop.
