Thus, in Hoping to Hear from You Soon, the warung is evoked as a place where conversations and public discourse could unfold, hidden from the watchful eyes of the state. Heri Dono has described the warung as an informal university, a space where members of society from all walks of life could converge and exchange ideas freely. Suspended between the two tarps are three inverted red figures reminiscent of bats, nocturnal creatures, which allude to how the conversations take place from the evening into the wee hours of the morning. Evocative of techniques used to build wayang kulit figures, traditional Indonesian shadow puppetry, these figures invite viewers to contemplate the nature of politics as shadow play. This work was first exhibited in 1992 at the New Art from Southeast Asia exhibition organised by The Japan Foundation, which toured through the cities of Tokyo, Fukuoka, Hiroshima and Osaka in Japan. Thereafter, it was also exhibited as part of the inaugural Asia Pacific Triennial organised by Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, Australia in 1993. These two exhibitions would become key loci for the formation of an emergent regional narrative around artists from Southeast Asia, foregrounding works that speak of the everyday lived realities in the region.