Inside Lin Zhipeng’s sultry, summery YSL exhibition

A sense of summer season warmth radiates from Lin Zhipeng (AKA Finger 223)’s images. It’s not simply the golden mild permeating his work that means heat; it’s the febrile sensuality. “Originally from the South, I am captivated by warm light and sultry air,” the Beijing-based photographer explains. “I often travel to southern areas and tropical destinations, so a summery aura and mood always shine through my images.” 

Like summer season, his work comprises an abundance of flowers and fruit – candy and alluring, but on the cusp of rotting within the warmth. “[These] are recurring symbols in my photography,” the Beijing-based photographer explains. “For me, they represent transience. They are beautiful, tender, ripe and fleeting. They contain desire, growth and inevitable decay.” 

The artist labored with YSL’s inventive director Anthony Vaccarello to curate his newest exhibition at Saint Laurent Rive Droit Beijing. Taken from his in depth archive, the photographs have been chosen to echo the theme of Qixi, often known as Chinese Valentine’s Day, which falls yearly on 19 August. This physique of labor reverberates with the feverish sexuality and vibrating want that makes his work so distinct. 

While the sliced figs, splayed grapefruit segments and lily heads with their sticky stamens are nearly obscene, there’s a poetic, light high quality to Finger 223’s photos – they’re all the time suggestive slightly than graphic. “I would describe the atmosphere of these photographs as tranquil and unrushed, imbued with understated sensuality,” he tells me. They are “laced with playfulness”. 

Like the spirit of Qixi, they’re romantic and tender. “This exhibition interprets romance and intimate human connection through the lens of Chinese Qixi culture,” he says. “It presents gentle, subtle, and authentic love moments expressed through flowers, fruit, human bodies, and quiet interactions.” We see the heads of two figures embraced, lit by a patch of daylight; we see a palm gently holding the flowers of Ochna integerrima with their crimson petals and swollen black fruits; we see the very tender flesh of somebody’s neck, arched in pleasure or ache. 

To me, there’s a perfection about his photos. But he resists this concept. “There is no such thing as a perfect photograph,” he insists. Instead, he’s drawn to “a sense of incompleteness in images – minor flaws within what otherwise appears harmonious, carrying an irreproducible emptiness. It is similar to shooting film; many imperfections emerge from outdated analogue technology, yet these blemishes hold their own charm. To embrace imperfection is a stance. I resist the overly polished completeness that prevails in our current digital era.” But, on this age of eerily flawless AI-generated pictures, maybe the idiosyncrasies of analogue are the brand new customary of perfection. And, if not perfection, then another chic high quality.

The exhibition will probably be working at Saint Laurent Rive Droit Beijing till 11 September 2026.