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.

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DuckUnit (Bangkok) was founded in 2005. Its early work included concert stage design and artwork by the company’s founder Wit Pimkanchanapong. Witha wide range of interests and a penchant for exploring possibilities of its members, DuckUnit’s design works emanate a sense of experimentation, finding possibilities in relationships among media, from animation to lighting and space, with the main work being concert stage design, stage play design, and performance arts design. DuckUnit is currently led by Rueangrith Suntisuk and Pornpan Arayaveerasid, who discovered theirinterest in experimenting with mechanical systems to incorporate them intoinstallation art works, and continue to develop and expand their interests in other fields.