From dreams and rice bowls to a love letter for Hong Kong, the actress-turned-ceramicist channels gratitude, memory and craft into her Louis Vuitton collaboration. In exclusive conversation with P.Ramakrishnan.
For Louis Vuitton’s bicentennial "Louis 200" celebration, Hong Kong-based actress, curator, and artist Karena Lam was invited alongside 200 global creative visionaries to reimagine the maison's iconic 50×50×100 cm trunk as a canvas.
At the Hong Kong viewing, many could see a handful of curated trunks in full display often with the artist in tow. Lam’s creation stands out for its serene blending of fine art, local cultural tribute, and tactile ceramic craftsmanship: she adorned the white trunk with a vibrant sky-blue, hand-painted floral window motif prominently featuring "HONG KONG" emblazed in all cap lettering and topped the piece with dozens of hand-thrown, unglazed white ceramic bowls stacked across its top surface. This juxtaposition transforms the traditional travel vessel into an intimate sculpture that pays homage to her artistic roots, ceramic practice, and connection to Hong Kong's intrinsic cultural identity.
When the opportunity came to interview her exclusively for the magazine, it was an easy yes. Lam wears so many hats so beautifully - actress, mother, wife, artist, sculptor - yet when we meet during the eight-day exhibition at H Zentre in Tsim Sha Tsui, Karena Lam is focused on the trunk she has designed with Louis Vuitton.
The former Prestige magazine cover girl moves easily between multiple roles, but here, on this fine day, the artist leads. Her latest piece for the house’s 200th anniversary continues a thread that began years earlier: work drawn directly from dreams and the subconscious.
“The common area is that they’re both derived from my dreams and subconscious,” she says of her collaborations with Louis Vuitton. The first involved a magnetron and other images she paired with Lubicon painter Charlotte. This year she returned to Charlotte again.
“I told her I had this other dream. She’s like, you’re always dreaming. Like I know but isn’t this great?! You can dream about it and then you can actually put it into action. I think that’s one of the best parts about my job.”
As an actress she knows the script by heart long before the cameras roll, but when starting her sculpture or ceramic, she has no idea what the final end result will be. “You read the script like a million times. You go to the set, you’re like, I’ve seen this before, I’ve said these words before and I know this person I'm about to portray... and everything just feels right because your subconscious is so strong.” That same force shaped the new trunk. She chose the Bauhinia flower - Hong Kong’s own bloom - because the piece would travel the world and eventually sit in the house museum in Asnières, France.
“I really wanted, amongst the two hundred trunks, you can just see this from afar and know it is from Hong Kong.”
She also made two hundred rice bowls. A practising potter, Lam created every single one herself. Louis Vuitton gave her seven days; she stretched it to nine. “It was a killer, because there was one day that I did, I was pulling bowls for twenty hours.” The finished bowls travelled to France while she remained in the city she calls home. The choice of form was deliberate.
“Rice is something very humbling because you know, to actually grow rice and harvest rice is not easy - it requires patience. I participated in a six-month rice workshop. I grew rice! Oh my god, the labour! All that work - for one bowl of rice is four thousands of those grains. It is so much time and effort - but now every time I have rice, I find it really is precious, not to be taken for granted.”
She cleaned her bowls carefully, each by hand. The shape itself mattered. “The reason why I decided to stick with the form of a rice bowl is because it’s two hands pressed together, so as to give and to receive. It is a very humbling, very simple, very basic gesture. So, I really want to show my gratitude to Louis Vuitton because of their heritage and the craftsmanship and also this is also to show my gratitude to Hong Kong. I call it a love letter to Hong Kong,” she says as we circle around her prized piece.
The ceramics themselves demand absolute presence. People in the pottery community called her crazy for even attempting two hundred bowls in such a short period of time. She worked twenty-hour days, four days of creating, then the rest of the week trimming, glazing and firing every piece by hand. “When I’m making ceramics, I don’t think about my kids, I don’t think about my husband, I don’t think about what I’m going to do after. I’m there. That’s why in my studio I don’t put a clock. I don’t have music on. My phone is off. And I’m just there. I just feel if you don’t have that kind of dedication, then just don’t do it. I really force myself, but I really enjoy it. I’m not stressed.”
The deadline, instead of being the Sword of Damocles hanging over her head, only sharpened the care. “Although it is rushed, each bowl was handled and trimmed and glazed and fired by me. I feel that this is precious because taking one’s time is precious.”
Her pieces kept growing by the hour, day by day, it came to form and fruition slowly - but steadily. “My works are getting bigger and bigger and I find it really interesting because I’m wondering why is it getting bigger? Why am I not making, small, delicate pieces? I just feel like once you’re toiling on bigger works, it’s like your body, it’s like going with my heartbeat, coiling around. And I don’t know when to stop. Because your heartbeat is so confident, you keep going at it and you’ve got this momentum, which is just taking you further - so I don’t have to think anymore, just do. No stressful thoughts, just action."
Acting and clay remain equal parts, central to her occupation and interest. “For me they’re both the same, because it is self-expression. You’re still creating things that didn't exist before, and you’re learning about people, the humanity of life. And you see a lot inwardly."
"Clay has memory. So whatever emotion you bring into the studio that day, that clay, it sucks it up. That’s what I find really interesting in the process.” She never studied pottery at school. The medium found her only during the pandemic.
“I’m surprised that I didn’t pick it up in school. It was because of COVID, I took up this hobby - and now, I really like this medium.” The physical cost amuses her. “Sooner or later, I’m giving up the hand model job [she laughs]. I don't know if I'll be using my hands when acting - all my expressions are now molded in clay."
As we stroll around the room and meet LV's other guests, and gander about the lot looking at other trunk inspired work, Lam narrates how the work came about. Her relationship with the brand deepened after she saw the work behind the monogram.
“I’ve always known of Louis Vuitton - I mean, who in Hong Kong doesn't know the brand? When you’re younger you can’t afford the items, you would buy what's accessible like the perfume, then accessories, then the bag - its a growing relationship.”
Later, during the time-capsule project around 2018, she visited the house museum and the ateliers in Italy where the trunks are made. “I saw that in each department; they still use their hands. So, you realise, why some of the items are so expensive, it’s not because of the logo or branding or advertising, it is the effort and artistry. It is because of the stories, it’s connected to people, it’s the heritage. It’s how they still put it all together, they are still very firm about making it with hands, not machines. Seeing that tour of the trunks I was just so overwhelmed by it, the people behind the work.”
At cocktail, as celebrities, socialites, artists swan in and around, we would be remiss to not discuss style. Fashion, for her, is quieter than red-carpet expectation. On the day we meet she wears an oversized Louis Vuitton ensemble she chose for herself. “I liked the fact that they had these lifts, because I’m not very tall, I like it looking vintage. Even though I’ve worn it, it could belong to my dad. It’s so voluminous.”
On the red carpet her priorities are clear. “Hide all my flaws! You’re not getting any younger. Basically, don’t try to be sixteen on the red carpet. I like to portray my own age. I think beauty comes from acceptance. I’m not going to go back to sixteen by some miracle, so I’m not dressing that way; I want to dress my age.”
She notes that Asian skin often ages kindly. “Because we don’t go in the sun - we are clever people! We’re always shaded. When I went to Phuket in Thailand and I'm told, 'You’re all covered up, enjoy the weather!' I’m like, nah, ten years down the road, I'll look like a bag!” She laughs when people react to her age. “I love telling people my real age - and they’re like, wow! Asian skin - no sun!”
We titter unbecomingly for a posh event and find a corner, far from the madding crowd. When it comes to travel - we are celebrating the traveling trunk with LV after all - she says museums and galleries remain her preferred form of adventure. “I love going to museums in every country I visit. I’m a big fan of the arts. I feel museums or galleries are like therapy groups for me. It’s like you learn a lot from other artists, you observe a lot, you’re inspired by the work, knowing that they’ve struggled in different times, lived in different eras, all their work is a reflection of their time on earth.”
One thing she hasn't cared for is tech in sacred spaces. Digital viewing leaves her cold. “How can you just buy art just from zoom? For me it takes time, I need to see it with my own eyes, feel it, I just need to be there, to be witness to great art.”
When Louis Vuitton offered a digital option for the anniversary trunk she refused. “They said do you want the digital form or the physical? I wanted the real!"
"I know what NFT is - but I didn’t think that, if I was to sign digitally, and create something in the ether... that wouldn't be me. I said No! so quickly. I need the physical trunk. For me the physicality of making things, to touch these, plays a really important role. So, for me I’m still a very old-fashioned kind of girl when it comes to physical sculptures and great art. They have to be real... not surreal."
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