The international contemporary art world has its eyes set on Houston for the sixth of October. On that day, in a warehouse south of the Astrodome, New York-based Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang will ignite a set of monumental gunpowder drawings, declaring a heroic moment in the course of early 21st century art.

Once the ashes have settled, the group of drawings, entitled Odyssey, will be installed in the new Asian art gallery at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, representing the artist's first permanent, site-specific installation in a United States museum.

Houstonians are taking an active role in Cai's endeavor, as 80 local volunteers will be assisting the artist lay down gunpowder in the 25,000-square-foot warehouse. During select times on Oct. 5 and 6, the general public can visit the warehouse-cum-studio and witness the artist and his assistants at work. A small audience will observe the climatic ignition, which will be live streamed on CultureMap.

For the next month, we will closely follow the artistic and curatorial story behind Cai's work, delving to the root of his epic compositions and the museum's vision for Asian art.

Despite their monumentality, Cai's drawings are characteristic for their nuanced treatment of ancient Chinese art tradition. He's said himself, "Art is not about what you say; it's about these other things that you don't say."

In his preliminary sketches for the gallery, he makes references to archetypal Chinese painting via symbols of lotus and narcissus flowers, waterfalls and mountains shrouded in mist. The panels' narrative is clarified with his verse hovering above the sketches:

The aboriginal notion of ying and yang permeates both the text and drawings, yet through Cai's explosive gunpowder technique, the works manifest as entirely modern. By partially destroying ancient Chinese art motifs and commenting on Socialist Realist propaganda, he's also come under scrutiny from Beijing's political leaders.

To be sure, the manipulation of gunpowder is evidently a reference to the material's Chinese heritage. The events of Oct. 6 promise to be both aesthetically beautiful and catastrophic, as elements of the drawing go ablaze, altering the work's presentation in arbitrary and unpredictable ways.

"My work is like the poppy flower," Cai stated in an interview with Art:21. "It has this romantic side, and yet it also represents poison."

Having practiced with gunpowder for two decades, Cai brings an uncommon mastery of this ancient medium.

On Sunday, Chin-Ye, the Taiwanese conservator employed by Cai's New York studio, arrived in Houston to reveal the particular paper that will serve as the future gallery's backdrop, forming the backbone of Odyssey.

"It's very much like love making," Cai said of preparing the Chinese-made paper, elucidating, "from the beginning of laying down the paper, it's like laying down the sheets on the bed.

"It's a very long process, always looking towards the final goal. And all the time, there's this feeling that you want to explode, to finish. But you're afraid that it's too early, that it's not time yet, maybe you need to work on it a little more. Afterwards, you either have complete satisfaction or great disappointment as to your performance."

Much ink has been spilt on the significance of Cai's work and its place within contemporary art criticism. He's been the subject of solo shows at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim in New York and Bilbao and the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum, and curated the first China Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005. For the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he gained further acclaim for curating an artful fireworks display. With the expanding global consciousness of the emergence of contemporary Chinese art, Cai has risen as a leader for his ability to traverse epochs and create work that speaks across continents.

"You can talk all day about the ancient philosophies and modern philosophies," he acknowledged, "Art history, criticism, theory, subject matter, historical context, contemporary postmodern form and representation — all of that can be discussed. But in the end, it's this on-site performance that really makes a work."

The art world awaits the ignition of Cai's Houston performance on Oct. 6. For now until the ignition, visit CultureMap regularly to see the story of Odyssey unfold — before it goes up in flames.