2022
concrete, plastic, glass
180 x 80 x 63 cm
Transcription from the audio guide written by Alina Kleytman:
Ah, well now, ladies and gentlemen,
Fasten your imagination seatbelts and remove your glasses of decency—
Presenting: The Anal Umbrella!
This umbrella isn’t for the rain. Oh no.
It’s for the internal climate!
Behold the handle adorned with anal beads—playfully menacing, like a dominatrix’s whisper in the ear of a frightened aesthete.
But wait—the fun doesn’t end there!
What’s this mysterious detail dangling just below?
Why, it’s a magnifying glass!
Yes, yes, don’t be shy—look through it!
It’s not just a quirk. It’s an invitation.
An invitation to peer into the most intimate, the darkest core of human vulnerability.
Or, put more plainly—into the anus.
This is… THE ANAL UMBRELLA.
And if you don’t understand what it’s for—perhaps you simply haven’t looked deep enough…
Description/commentary
At once absurd and unsettling, ANAL UMBRELLA stands precariously on a fragile tripod base, its collapsed canopy appearing worn, frayed, and stretched beyond function. The sculpture merges architectural structure with corporeal suggestion—its rigid materials contorted into a form that evokes both protection and exposure, care and control.
The title itself confronts the viewer with a jarring juxtaposition, invoking humor, discomfort, and subversion. What should offer shelter becomes a site of vulnerability; what should shield the body becomes a proxy for its invasion. Kleytman’s use of industrial materials—concrete, plastic, and glass—heightens the tension between solidity and fragility. ANAL UMBRELLA asks: where do we draw the line between utility and symbolism, comedy and trauma, resilience and collapse? In Kleytman’s hands, even an umbrella becomes a site of confrontation—between private and public, erotic and grotesque, absurd and painfully real.