{"id":65902,"date":"2019-04-18T12:52:52","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T16:52:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/?p=65902"},"modified":"2022-08-02T14:04:57","modified_gmt":"2022-08-02T18:04:57","slug":"bu-today-feature-finding-the-inner-light-in-painter-edward-hoppers-characters","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/news\/articles\/2019\/bu-today-feature-finding-the-inner-light-in-painter-edward-hoppers-characters\/","title":{"rendered":"BU today feature: Finding the Inner Light in Painter Edward Hopper\u2019s Characters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar news-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">April 18, 2019<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"video-responsive\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uWBImhr6vms\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>This article was originally published in BU Today on April 18, 2019. By Joel Brown.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re familiar with the paintings of<span>\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.edwardhopper.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Edward Hopper<\/a>,<span>\u00a0<\/span><em>movement<\/em><span>\u00a0<\/span>probably isn\u2019t the first word they bring to mind. Even the ones with people in them have a static quality, as they stare out a window or into their coffee. But<span>\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/profile\/yo-el-cassell\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Yo-EL Cassell<\/a><span>\u00a0<\/span>doesn\u2019t see things the way most of us do.<\/p>\n<p>His movement theater piece<span>\u00a0<\/span><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eventbrite.com\/e\/inmotion-theatre-sunlight-interior-tickets-60216488137\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sunlight Interior<\/a><\/em><span>\u00a0<\/span>arises from Hopper\u2019s paintings, which Cassell has long loved. But he takes the feelings they inspire in him and goes somewhere else entirely.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Hopper paintings embrace light, how light comes from behind, above, and around,\u201d says the College of Fine Arts assistant professor of movement, who conceived and directs the show, presented by his InMotion Theatre Thursday through Sunday, April 18 to 21, in CFA\u2019s Studio ONE.<\/p>\n<p>Cast members double in various roles and even in the ensemble, playing characters you\u2019ll remember if you know<span>\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/arts-culture\/hopper-156346356\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hopper\u2019s work<\/a>, including the Usher and the Nighthawks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe characters you may see in a Hopper painting\u2014what if they stepped into the light, what would that story mean?\u201d Cassell asks. \u201cAnd I thought that story might be a lot like the work of Magritte, the office worker who yearns to fly, or the dreamer who yearns to be a butterfly. They\u2019re embracing their inner light.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In part that\u2019s why he also pulls the imagery of the surrealist painter<span>\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.renemagritte.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rene Magritte<\/a> into this physical theater production. Cassell is something of an magpie; he collects disparate elements into the artistic nests he makes for himself.<span>\u00a0<\/span><em>Sunlight Interior<\/em><span>\u00a0<\/span>is the companion piece to a 2005 production,<span>\u00a0<\/span><em>Moonlight Interior<\/em>, he staged in New York, and in it, besides the two painters, he is pulling inspiration from the Wim Wenders film<span>\u00a0<\/span><em>Wings of Desire<\/em><span>\u00a0<\/span>and the Harry Chapin song<span>\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fo-tCNtFI10\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u201cMr. Tanner,\u201d<\/a><span>\u00a0<\/span>about a barber who closes his shop at night and sings to himself and feels whole.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe song has become sort of the role model for these separate but relatable vignettes that support each other and kind of overlap, that celebrate what it means to step into the light, to embrace your inner light even if it\u2019s dangerous, sensual, exciting, and joyful,\u201d Cassell says.<\/p>\n<p>As he put it in a short essay about the project: \u201cWhat if we as individuals had the chance to embrace our inner light or sunlight interior\u2014our passions, vulnerabilities, and desires? What would happen when we actually step into the light to embody a life that seems so attainable but inaccessible?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"button\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/today\/2019\/sunlight-interior-yo-el-cassell\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Read the full article<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; This article was originally published in BU Today on April 18, 2019. By Joel Brown. If you\u2019re familiar with the paintings of\u00a0Edward Hopper,\u00a0movement\u00a0probably isn\u2019t the first word they bring to mind. Even the ones with people in them have a static quality, as they stare out a window or into their coffee. But\u00a0Yo-EL Cassell\u00a0doesn\u2019t [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13703,"featured_media":65903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[],"bu-publication":[192],"magazine-article-category":[],"magazine-topic":[],"news-article-category":[329],"news-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/65902"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13703"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65902"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/65902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88937,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/65902\/revisions\/88937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65902"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=65902"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-article-category?post=65902"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-topic?post=65902"},{"taxonomy":"news-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-article-category?post=65902"},{"taxonomy":"news-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topic?post=65902"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=65902"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=65902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}