Echoes of Time | Rebeka Tam & Shiori Kaneko’s Ceramic Worlds Where Time is Preserved

wamono art presents Echoes of Time, a duo exhibition by Hong Kong artist Rebeka Tam and Japanese artist Shiori Kaneko. Rebeka’s work draws from historical traces found on Hong Kong’s public walls, while Kaneko’s sculptures emerge from imagined timelines within abandoned buildings. Together, they reveal how ceramics can hold both transformation and stillness, capturing the fantasy of fixing time itself. Rebeka Tam’s practice begins with walls that evolve constantly as advertisements are removed, paint is reapplied, and traces accumulate or fade. Over repeated visits, she observes how time inscribes itself through subtle marks and erasures, then translates these observations into ceramic surfaces that do not replicate real walls but evoke imagined ones—quiet, layered, and resonant with the city’s shifting histories. The exhibition presents her own photographs alongside her ceramic works, inviting viewers to slow down their pace and attune to Hong Kong’s hidden rhythms and the delicate traces of change. Shiori Kaneko’s sculptures arise from her encounters with decaying architecture. For her, ruins are living timelines that hold past, present, and future at once. She imagines the former life of each structure, the transformations it has undergone, and the future it will meet. Her ceramic forms resemble fantastical ruin‑scapes where worn surfaces and shifting contours feel inscribed by time. Kaneko embraces the beauty of aging and the inevitability of change, expressing figures that “live on by decaying.” In this exhibition, the ever‑shifting flow of time is quietly anchored in the enduring medium of ceramics—a material that retains its form across decades. Each artist brings her own sensibility and originality to the exploration of memory, traces, and the fragile gaze cast upon a world in constant transition, guiding viewers into distinct narrative realms. Echoes of Time invites audiences to immerse themselves in a fantastical space where time seems to be held within the permanence of fired clay.

Born in Hokkaido in 1993, she has been drawn to drawing since childhood and later pursued studies in design. Her encounter with ceramics during her school years revealed a medium of remarkable formal and expressive freedom, prompting her to begin creating her own works using ceramic techniques. Some pieces appear to contain rusted steel beams within their structure, yet every element is crafted entirely from clay. She continues to research glazes that align with her artistic vision. Throughout her student years, she received numerous awards, and in 2017 was selected for “World Crafts 100,” presented at the Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design as part of the International Hokuriku Craft Summit. In 2025, she was chosen by curator Marc Donnadieu for the “Promises” section at Art Paris, exhibiting from wamono art.

Born in Hong Kong in 1978, Rebeka graduated from Hong Kong Baptist University with a BSocSc (Hons) in Sociology, and later obtained a BA in Fine Arts (Ceramics) from RMIT University in 2008. She subsequently completed a Master of Arts in Cultural Management at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2013. She has worked as an art educator for many years and has been actively involved in leading community arts projects. In recent years, Rebeka has resumed her studio practice, continuing to explore the relationship between art, personal experience, and social emotion. Through working with clay and practicing mindfulness, she has discovered the power of calmness embedded in material-based processes. Her recent practice focuses in particular on the relationship between memory and clay. Rebeka has participated in various local group exhibitions. In 2019, she was funded by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) to undertake an artist residency and cultural exchange project in Shigaraki, Japan. She held her first solo exhibition, rest/unrest, in 2020, followed by Cleaned Walls in 2021.