When it’s finished, Cai Guo-Qiang’s monumental landscape, at 162-by-10 feet, will be trucked back to the MFAH and installed to line the four walls of the museum’s new Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Arts of China Gallery, which opens Oct. 17. Odyssey is the first in a series of four contemporary commissions for the museum’s Arts of Asia galleries. Do-Ho Suh, Anish Kapoor and Tatsuo Miyajima also have projects in the works.

Cai Guo-Qiang has created his gunpowder drawings in many parts of the world, including Japan, Taiwan, France, and his hometown, Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China. But he doesn’t work alone. Typically, the effort includes his studio team plus up to 80 sturdy local volunteers who spend several days with the artist, stenciling, cutting and drawing, and assisting with the explosion on the final day.