Rubber Madness : Les Potes

Robert Ruscoe, my partner and technical digital wizard at Lalande Digital Art Press Paris, is also a talented rubber stamp artist. He's created more than 1000 rubber stamps, each with its own genius. He works tirelessly late at night carving details out of a few square centimeters of rubber, adding to a canon of artworks that range from portraits of artists like Joseph Beuys and Serge Gainsbourg, remakes of photos by Eadweard Muybridge (a flipbook), postage stamps, and word and text works that are not only clever, but beautiful.

Here he is stamping away at the 2003 Mail Art exhibition in Paris organized by Christian Balmier. That show included a number of artists including Michel Hosszù, Fernand Barbot, Ryosuke Cohen, Laurent Rousseau and for the closing, became the embassy launchpas for Liz Stirling's Liz Vegas. Needless to say, Liz (who works at Internet design company, Spill, created an event that was a scream – in pink.

This piece (right), is the newest in our Carte de Rencontre promotion series, and features Robert's brilliant "LES POTES" rubberstamp. Two gay men with the tagline "RUBBER SAVES LIVES" promotes safe sex. It's our Ca-Potes (capote = "condom" in French, and "potes" = friends: a play on LA POSTE) card. Targeting the male gay market in Paris with a rubber (stamp) is one way to encourage responsible communications. If you're in Paris, look for them next weekend in the gay bars in the Marais, along the rue des Archives (75004 and 75003).