Hi Weng-U!
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview with us as we launch the next issue of SINK, your piece "Portrait of a Young Woman" is a real favourite amongst the team!
As you know, this issue is all about rest and how people interpret and experience it and we’re asking a few northern creatives about their thoughts on it.
Q1: Firstly, what does rest mean to you?
To me, rest means time spent without worry, stress or guilt. It is rest from any form of work directly attached to monetary value and rest from the daily worries, which range from my uncertain purpose in life to what I am going to feed myself for the day.
I know I enjoy reading (currently reading A Little Life), crocheting, watching YouTube videos, going to the cinema, listening to music, seeing my friends and hanging out with my boyfriend. I prefer spending my time outside with people and it was only a few months ago that I realised that spending time with loved ones is a necessary form of rest, rather than an indulgence!
Q2: Do you think you let yourself rest enough, if not why not? what gets in the way?
To be honest, I don’t know. I currently have a lot of free time and that makes my existentialism flare up. I try my best to be compassionate to myself and to stay positive, but I have also had long periods of feeling quite low. Being in such a state means that everyday tasks are overwhelming, so sometimes I end up staying in my room for days on end desperately trying to distract myself from my reality and how I’m feeling. Although I’m spending many hours of my day in bed, I am doing so while feeling sad, stressed and subsequently guilty, so I’m not really resting. During days like that, I genuinely don’t know how to give myself permission to rest.
Q3: And lastly, Is there anything in any way creative or art-related that you’re created or are working on that you want to plug with our readers? (Feel free to include social media links etc)
I am currently working on a novella with the working title ‘growing up is a slow grief’. It is about a woman dealing with the pressures of young adulthood and growing out of the city she loves.
I am also working on a short story under the theme of ‘Loneliness in the City’ for a friend’s uni photography project.
Feel free to contact me about my writing at: wenguwrites@gmail.com
And that's the end of this interview, Weng-U's work is proudly featured in our latest issue which has just opened for preorder!
100% of the profits will go to charities helping Palestinians so you will be supporting more than just us lot!