Yufan Lu: Make Me Beautiful  8.5. – 14.6.2026 Tervetuloa avajaisiin torstaina 7.5.2026 kello 17.00-19.00! Opastus sunnuntaina 31.5.2026 kello 13.00.   Olen kasvanut aikana, jolloin kauneuskirurgian ala kasvoi nopeasti, ympärilläni epärealistisia kauneusihanteita tuottavat mainokset sekä sosiaalisen median kauneussuodattimet ja algoritmit. Käänsin kamerani itseäni kohden, asettaen itseni samanaikaisesti kuvan kohteeksi ja tarkkailijaksi, voidakseni kohdata omaan ulkonäkööni liittyviä huoliani ja tutkiakseni nyky-Kiinaa muovaavia kauneusihanteita. /// Yufan Lu: Make Me Beautiful  8.5. – 14.6.2026 Välkommen på vernissage på torsdagen den 7. Maj kl. 17.00–19.00! Guidad visning 31.5.2026 kl. 13.00.   Jag växte upp med att bevittna den snabbt växande kosmetiska kirurgiindustrin, omgiven av reklam, sociala mediefilter och algoritmer som skapar orealistiska skönhetsideal. Jag riktade kameran mot mig själv och blev både subjekt och observatör för att konfrontera min oro kring mitt utseende och utforska de skönhetsideal som formar det samtida Kina. /// Yufan Lu: Make Me Beautiful 8.5. – 14.6.2026 Opening on Thursday, May 7th, 5-7pm. Guided tour on Sunday, May 31th, 1pm.   I grew up witnessing the burgeoning cosmetic surgery industry, surrounded by advertisements, social media filters and algorithms that produce unrealistic beauty standards. I turned the camera on myself, becoming both subject and observer to confront anxieties about my looks and explore the beauty standards that shape contemporary China. #yufanlu #makemebeautiful #valokuvakeskusperi #taiteentalo #turuntaidehalli #photocentreperi

Photobook dummy of my work ‘Return’. The book is a cycle. It has no beginning or end, can be turned from any page in either direction. It mirrors the cycle of life, and the idea that a life keeps returning to those who miss it, being brought back by the hands that touch it. The first dummy was designed and handmade in 2024. I intuitively chose the transparent binding discs, and realised why when @juha_nenonen told me they look like camera lenses. I’m honoured to have the dummy longlisted for the first Ephemere Photobook Grant @ephemere.tokyo @anne.murayama 🌻 It will encounter more hands at The Ephemere Photobook Exhibition at this year’s Kyotographie, Apr 18 - May 17. Come and give it a soft touch if you are around.:)

Making the next photograph for The Seeing Hand using films inherited from @setthana Feeling lucky to have seized the sunlight that has been playing hide and seek for the past two weeks…

Tried something new with this series. I recycled abandoned glass heads, and transplanted those abandoned glass skins to the unwanted faces I sculpted from pre-cosmetic surgery portraits. One’s forehead becomes another’s eyes; a neck becomes a nose; an ear becomes a mouth; a side profile becomes a frontal face…There’s no rule deciding which part must become which - everything depends on the material itself. Some transplantations take longer and remained halfway done, leaving me with glass faces where two body parts flow into one another. And once again, with this process I’m experiencing the pain of photography I’ve felt with making my other works: I hurt the original to make the copies. Special thanks to Viivi @sick__times for donating her beautiful glass work🥰

©︎Yufan Lu / Return RPS KYOTO PAPEROLES における初のグラント受賞者として、ユファン・ルー（Yufan Lu）が選ばれました。 審査には、アレクサ・ベッカー、エリック・ブルーン、ジュゼッペ・オリヴェリオ、ステートン・ウィンター、マリナ・パウレンカが参加し、プロジェクト「Return」が選出されました。 「Return」（2020–） は、亡き祖母を追悼するためにサーマルカメラを用いて制作された作品です。 身体の軌跡や温度の残像が、記憶と愛情の気配を静かに映し出します。監視の象徴だったサーマルイメージを、個人的な時間と感情の器へと反転させたプロジェクトです。 展示は 2026年後半 に RPS KYOTO PAPEROLES にて開催予定です。 ユファン・ルー（Yufan Lu） 中国とフィンランドを拠点に活動。映像・写真・パフォーマンスを横断し、個人史と社会構造の交差する領域を探求。不可視の感情や記憶を温度や身体の痕跡として可視化する手法を特徴とする。 🟡 RPSグラント応募受付中（締め切り：2026年3月31日） /ja/grantsjp/ Yufan Lu has been selected as the first grant recipient of RPS KYOTO PAPEROLES. This year’s jury—Alexa Becker, Erik Vroons, Giuseppe Oliverio, Staton Winter, and Marina Paulenka—has chosen Lu’s project “Return.” “Return” (2020–) is a personal ritual of remembrance for Lu’s late grandmother, created using a thermal camera.
Through bodily gestures, temperature traces, and subtle imprints, the work reveals an intimate landscape of memory and affection, transforming a former surveillance tool into a vessel for personal time and emotion. The exhibition will take place in the second half of 2026 at RPS KYOTO PAPEROLES. About Yufan Lu
An artist based between China and Finland, working across video, photography, and performance. Lu’s practice explores the intersections of personal narratives and social structures, visualizing invisible layers of memory through temperature and embodied traces. 🟡 RPS Grant — Applications open until March 31, 2026
/ja/grantsjp/ 🟡 RPS KYOTO PAPEROLES | Artist-in-Residence Program /en/rpskyotopaperolesresidency2026winter-springen/ @alexa.beckr @erikvroons @goliverio_ @fotowinter @marinapaulenka

Some new glass ‘death masks’ made from pre-cosmetic surgery portraits. 喜欢死了😍 #makemebeautiful

I intended to have the pattern on the yellow glass head mimic her skin disease. The random pattern also turns out to look like blossoms on a tree.

妈妈头 Sculpted from photographs Thank you @korhonenmarjukka !

Glass death masks created out of my desire to preserve the unwanted faces, made from the pre-surgery medical portraits of women who have done cosmetic surgeries. The latest ongoing part of the work Make Me Beautiful. 是谁下午布展时不小心cei了一个表面上云淡风轻挥挥衣袖不带走一块碎片几个小时后在家默默哭泣 碎碎平安，碎碎平安

Last weekend of Return @hippolytegallery is here. I keep thinking about the accidental ambient light from the space’s broken lamps. They create fleeting moments of dusk, send me back to every dusk when grandma, and now mom, sat on the sofa staring at the TV screen glowing with vibrant colors that spill beyond its edges, when the sunlight was disappearing on the other side of the window, when I felt that urge to tell them to draw the curtains and turn on the light before it harms your eyes. I still feel that urge every time I’m in this space.