Yuen Chee Wai
Dublin Core
Title
Yuen Chee Wai
Contributor
Contributor Item Type Metadata
First Name
Chee Wai
Surname or Business Name
Yuen
Years Affiliated
2018, 2021 - 2022, 2025 - 2026
Affiliation
The Observatory
Birth Date
1975
Birthplace
Singapore
Occupation
Musician
Biographical Text
Musician, artist, designer, and curator Yuen Chee Wai (b. 1975, Singapore) is known for his commitment to improvised music and experimental projects that explore memory and loss, indeterminacy and invisibility. Ranging from the obsolescent and the newfangled, his eclectic toolbox comprises noise, field recordings, found sounds as well as guitars and various electronic instruments which reverberate with critical perspectives inspired by philosophy, literature, film, and politics. Together with FEN (Far East Network), an improvised music quartet he co-formed in 2008, Yuen is active in triggering multifaceted collaborations across Asia. Since 2014, he is Project Director of Asian Music Network for which he co-curates Asian Meeting Festival. Yuen is also a member of the experimental band The Observatory with whom he plays guitar, efx and objects, and organises a range of projects such Playfreely and BlackKaji.
The Observatory is a band whose music and cultural ethos responds and speaks back to the contemporary afflictions in Singapore and the global milieu. Its current constellation comprises multi-instrumentalists Cheryl Ong, Dharma and Yuen Chee Wai who tread on improvisation, intermedia, experimentation and noise-adjacent territories. In confronting new forms of disorders, The Observatory restlessly turns upon itself to agitate, to comfort and to resist. Drawing on old and new lexicons, The Observatory seeks to bridge artists and expressions. Two decades on, the band’s polymath practice encompasses music and performance; in-person festivals and online radio shows; touring gigs and interdisciplinary exhibitions.
The Observatory is a band whose music and cultural ethos responds and speaks back to the contemporary afflictions in Singapore and the global milieu. Its current constellation comprises multi-instrumentalists Cheryl Ong, Dharma and Yuen Chee Wai who tread on improvisation, intermedia, experimentation and noise-adjacent territories. In confronting new forms of disorders, The Observatory restlessly turns upon itself to agitate, to comfort and to resist. Drawing on old and new lexicons, The Observatory seeks to bridge artists and expressions. Two decades on, the band’s polymath practice encompasses music and performance; in-person festivals and online radio shows; touring gigs and interdisciplinary exhibitions.
Country of Practice
Public Resource Centre Affiliation
Files
Collection
Citation
“Yuen Chee Wai,” NTU CCA Singapore Digital Archive, accessed March 10, 2026, https://ntuccasingapore.omeka.net/items/show/796.
Item Relations
| This Item | Is Part Of | Item: Carte Blanche #1: Dharma, Bani Haykal, Wu Jun Han, and Yuen Chee Wai |
| This Item | Is Part Of | Item: Carte Blanche #3: Tini Aliman, Dharma, Sudarshan Chandra Kumar, Cheryl Ong, Zai Tang, Wu Jun Han, and Yuen Chee Wai |
| This Item | Is Part Of | Item: DIY Contact Mic and Amplifier workshop with DJ Sniff (Takuro Mizuta Lippit) (United States/Japan) and Yuen Chee Wai (Singapore) |
| This Item | References | Item: Yuen Chee Wai |
| This Item | References | Item: The Observatory |