Hearing that an artist has made work out of panda feces, one can quickly think of a few possible suspects: panda-mad Rob Pruitt perhaps, or Chris Ofili, who has used elephant dung in past works. Even Piero Manzoni, who famously canned his own excrement, seems a possible culprit. However, it turns out that Chinese artist Zhao Bandi is, in fact, the man responsible, and that these new works are only the latest (and dirtiest) work stemming from his ongoing artistic fascination with pandas.

Although several years ago he mounted a pitched campaign against the public screening of the "Kung Fu Panda" movie in China, petitioning the central government’s bureau of broadcasting on the grounds that it was an insulting misappropriation of a precious Chinese cultural symbol, his own use of China’s beloved bear has brought a hail of criticism down on his own head. His "haute couture" panda works have drawn on a dizzying array of Chinese types — construction workers and stock brokers, hostesses and sex workers, beggars and gays — for inspiration and have created public furor and widespread animosity on the grounds that his work was insulted and injured China’s self-respect.

In spite of his seeming indifference to public opinion, he has recently embraced philanthropy and held a series of auctions of his work in aid of his favorite charity, which supports old people’s homes on the banks of the Yellow River.

Now he has taken his panda works — and his philanthropy — a step further, organizing a charity exhibition entitled "Using Creative Powers to Change an Old Folks Home" at the K Gallery in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. Sichuan is the home territory of the panda. As the event was launched by the "Panda Man," there was, of course, no dearth of pandas. But although there were a number of overtly panda themed works — no less than 17 panda piggy banks, for example — the panda contribution to many of the works was more hidden. In the show there were sculptural renderings of a range of other subjects, from Australian koala bears to — bizarrely — defeated World War II Japanese soldiers surrendering their weapons. Each of these works was formed from panda excrement.

The source of the idea, as it turns out, was not Zhao Bandi but Chengdu sculptor Zhu Cheng. He explained the genesis of the idea as follows: "When I was visiting the panda reserve, I overheard the staff talking about how to make better use of the panda’s excrement to generate something of value. At that moment, I had an epiphany about the artistic alchemy that could transform this waste into something of worth." As soon as Zhu Cheng told Zhao Bandi about his idea, the two resolved to launch the exhibition "Using Creative Powers to Change Old Folks' Homes."

According to the artists, all of the panda fecal matter used to make the works on display went through a "natural process" that involved washing and drying of the poo, which was apparently mostly comprised of chewed up pieces of bamboo. Zhu Cheng then supervised a group of young students from the local state-run Children’s Palace to make clay and plaster molds and then apply a paste of the bamboo fiber (also known as panda poo) mixed with glue to the exterior of the molds to complete the works. Leading Chinese artists, like Zhou Chunya and He Duoling, making the show, at least, a succès d'estime.