In collaboration with Para Site, Hong Kong, as part of the exhibition ‘Reframing Strangeness: Ha Bik Chuen’s Motherboards and Collagraphs’ (2025), Afterall have initiated a series of conversations with artists, curators and scholars. The exhibition reframes Ha’s motherboards from functional tools to aesthetic objects. We depart from Ha’s unconventional printing practice to generate new interpretations and intergenerational conversations, extending from Hong Kong to the world beyond.
Our second episode in the series is with Grace Samboh and Ruhaeni Intan from the Yogyakarta based collective Hyphen—. Founded in 2011, Hyphen— is a research initiative that puts forward curiosity and common wellbeing as the estuary of artistic practices. Their work is most often focussed on practices from and in Indonesia, bringing historical legacies into dialogue with contemporary concerns, work that has taken various forms, from exhibitions and publications to jam sessions and radio broadcasts. For this episode, Grace and Intan are in conversation with Afterall research fellow and editor David Morris. We explore how their work as part of Hyphen— extends some of the questions of ‘Reframing Strangeness’ on different practices of history: How and why do we remember? How are creative legacies cared for, carried and brought into the present?
Grace Samboh (b. Jakarta) lives and works either in Yogyakarta, Jakarta, or wherever her friends are at. Her work is rooted in research as it justifies her curiosity. She makes exhibitions, produces artworks, manages programmes, and would like to write more. She believes that curating is about understanding and making at the same time. Her research looks at contemporary practices outside the existing centers and slowly reconnects them all with the past and central narratives. With Hyphen— (f.2011), her concern is to encourage arts and artistic research projects and publications in and from Indonesia. With Enin Supriyanto, Yustina Neni and Ratna Mufida, she used to run Equator Symposium (Yogyakarta Biennale Foundation, 2010–18) where they explored the possibility of connecting equatorial countries through current life situation with an admiration to the past and optimism towards the future. Since 2019, she has been directing programmes in Jakarta’s RUBANAH Underground Hub.
Ruhaeni Intan (b.1995, Pati) made her debut as a novelist when her first novel, Arapaima, was published by Buku Mojok in 2019. Besides writing fiction, she also works as a freelance writer, be it as a copywriter, content writer, creative writer – anything that requires thoughts to be put into words. Her second novel, Seakan Bisa Dipisahkan was published by Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia (KPG, 2025). Currently, she is devoting her curiosity on archival work with Hyphen— while flipping back and forth between fiction and non-fiction that has owned her soul for so long.
This podcast series is produced by Arianna Mercado and co-edited by Elisa Adami, Wing Chan, Adeena Mey and David Morris.
Stayed tuned for Hyphen—'s Danarto research on hyphen.wed.id. 
Commercial
'From Jerusalem to Armageddon' from Nayamullah Station. The book can be downloaded for free via https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/43/article/960544/pdf
Music
'Arena Semangka' by Nayamullah
Homemade tunes by David Morris and baby Maia