Rozbeh Asmani
“anything under the sun that is made by man“ - October 31 until December 05, 2026

 

In 1980, the US Supreme Court ruled in the Chakrabarty case that “anything under the sun that is made by man” – that is, “everything under the sun that has been made by humans” – is patentable, regardless of whether it is inanimate or living. Since then, plants and organisms have been eligible for protection for the exclusive use of their creators.

In his current work, Rozbeh Asmani explores the archive holdings of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The focus is on chrysanthemums, ornamental plants that are not natural products but industrial artefacts and protected intellectual property. Botanical illustrations are a legally mandatory component of the patent application. From thousands of illustrations relating to the sterile, industrial mass production of certain plants, Asmani selects individual examples based on aesthetic criteria and, through the art of photogravure, restores their uniqueness as one-off pieces.

Asmani’s latest sculpture is a Federal Eagle made of butter. It is on display until February 2027 in the exhibition “Eagle, Medals, Ballot Box: Redesigning Democratic Representation” at the museumangewandtekunst in Frankfurt. ‘Deutsche Markenbutter’ is a legally protected trade category for butter of particularly high, regularly tested quality. It is marked on the packaging with a federal eagle, often accompanied by idyllic pasture landscapes. Asmani has had it printed on original butter wrappers.

These and other prints and sculptures form part of our fourth solo exhibition featuring Rozbeh Asmani. It is astonishing what the artist has achieved in almost twenty years. It all began with the small chocolate figurine Shirin – a woman wearing a chador – and the discovery of coloured marks.

Rozbeh Asmani was born in Shiraz, Iran, in 1983. He lives and works in Cologne and Greifswald. In 2018, he was awarded a working grant by the Kunstfonds Foundation. Since 2020, he has been Professor of New Media and Applied Graphic Design within the field of Fine Art at the University of Greifswald. Since 2023, he has been a full member of the Arts Class of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Düsseldorf.