A CAMOUFLAGE-CLAD Zhao Bandi sits behind a barricade of pillows, a surgical mask across his face, his finger on the trigger of a toy machine gun. Next to him, his faithful panda sits, also masked, a plastic Uzi nestling in his furry paws. The caption reads: 'Block Sars. Defend the homeland'.

That tragi-comic image, produced at a time when the viral epidemic Sars was claiming hundreds of lives, is one of the most famous public information-style images produced by Zhao, helping to make him one of the hottest artists on the buzzing Beijing art scene.

In his alter ego of Pandaman, Zhao has photographed himself over and over again with the panda.One image has the toy belted up in the front seat of a car ' 'Safety is everything.' Another shows an earnest discussion between artist and panda ' Zhao: 'Would you mind my smoking?' Panda: 'Would you mind my extinction?'

Zhao's first solo exhibition in the UK, Uh-oh! Pandaman, is running at Manchester Art Gallery. Last week, the artist made a personal appearance at one of the gallery's 'summer nights' events.

The unavoidable 'aaahh' factor of an artist working with a cuddly toy means children's events have also been arranged on the back of the exhibition. Kids are invited to take their teddy to the gallery on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, August 11 and 12, to create a poster.

When Zhao's panda images began to appear as posters on the Beijing underground railway system, they blurred the boundaries between art, advertising and propaganda. Not everyone got it.

Dissenting

'There were some dissenting voices,' Zhao says through a translator as he sat in the gallery, panda by his side. 'They think 'He is too patronising. Who is he and why does he want to teach people what to do?'' He has also been accused of 'kidnapping' the panda ' a charge which Zhao almost seems to relish.

"In eight years working with panda, I have proved it is possible for an individual to kidnap a national symbol,' he says. Born in Beijing in 1963, Zhao graduated from the oil painting department of the city's Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1988. His work then, in the spirit of the times, was social realism.'You must reflect life,' he recalls.

Shunned, at one time, by the mainstream, he was even denied a TV interview once because censors deemed his long hair unsuitable for public consumption.

Now, however, China is a significant player on the world art stage and Zhao says: 'It is no different from other countries. Artists can express anything, just like artists in other countries.'

Loner

Zhao's says he started to work with a cuddly toy because he is 'a loner' who found it difficult to co-operate with others. Yet the first panda images featured Zhao, his girlfriend and the panda, attempting to create a picture of harmony. Little wonder that some interpreted the panda as a symbol of China's one-child policy. When his girlfriend left, this, too, became part of Zhao's art.

During a court case in which Zhao sued two publications for unauthorised use of his Sars image, he subverted the proceedings by reading out the letter from his girlfriend explaining why she broke up with him.

Panda, naturally, was there in court, too. The whole thing was filmed and has become a video artwork in its own right, titled A Tale Of Love Gone Wrong For Pandaman.

As for how long Zhao and the panda will be together, the artist makes no predictions.
'I only look three months into the future,' he says.

Uh-oh! Pandaman, an exhibition of photographs by Zhao Bandi, runs at Manchester Art Gallery until September 5. A free, drop-in, family workshop, Uh-oh! Panda Power, takes place on August 11 and 12 between 1pm and 3pm in the gallery's education studios. Be sure to take your teddy
'or panda.

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