The Embargo of Silence

Yuen Chee Wai, Louis Quek, Cheryl Ong, DuckUnit

The Embargo of Silence is conceived and curated by Yuen Chee Wai. It consists of a concert performance that responds to the use of the silent-disco sound technology, where both performers and audiences listen to the work only through headphones. Three musicians Cheryl Ong, Louis Quek, and Yuen Chee Wai perform live, transitioning between improvised electronic music and DJ sets while siloed within luminous scaffolds designed by DuckUnit.

Here, silence is not presented as a void or absence but as a condition that changes how listening operates. It introduces a deliberately introspective mode of listening — one where sound does not assert itself into space but waits to be encountered. Rather than resonating publicly, the music trespasses directly into the listener’s inner terrain, allowing interpretation and response to unfold privately rather than collectively. The work shifts music from something that occupies the room to something that occupies the body. Every listener becomes a singular room. This choreography is both possessional and processional. No listener can be certain of what another is hearing: shared yet unverified, withheld yet unapologetic. This is the secrecy of the medium—the embargo of silence.

Cheryl Ong (Singapore) is a Singaporean percussionist whose work spans the realms of contemporary music, improvisation, and sound. Her practice delves into the improvisational and experimental, seeking to uncover new textures and ideas. Apart from regularly performing with Singaporean band, The Observatory, her collaborations traverse disciplines and mediums. Recent work include music composition for Daniel Hui’s film Small Hours of the Night (2024); Sound / Performer in Sim Chi Yin’s performance piece One Day We’ll Understand (2024); Duo performance with Khyam Allami for Latent Sonorities (2023); Ensemble work with RATA Orchestra’s RATA: new grounds, new sounds (2022). Her track Hejira featured in the closing credits of Yeo Siew Hua’s film A Land Imagined (2018).