Henrik Olai Kaarstein presents in the exhibition In Insincerity new paper collages staged within a sculptural scenography. The works are rooted in a dialogue with fragments of historical references, bridging the fragile materiality of paper sketches with reflections on sincerity and taste.

Sketches of lamps and lanterns are processed through tracing, layering, and material translation. The resulting works are delicate paper collages, built from transparent drafting sheets and tracing papers, layered with varnish, charcoal, ink, and pastel. Some passages are densely saturated, others remain fragile and translucent. Installed on metal rods and held by magnets, the works hover in space, detached from the wall.

A second body of work in the exhibition extends Kaarstein’s long-standing practice of collecting and cataloguing fragments: clippings, textiles, catalogues, and mass-produced objects. Unlike the restrained transparency of the collages, these works are colorful, saturated, and dense with recognisable images and material references. They function less as singular carriers of meaning and more as a dispersed “memory bank”, where symbols, codes, and images collide without hierarchy.