A contemporary art king is nothing without his minions, and for Cai Guo-Qiang, whose gunpowder drawings will soon line the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's Chinese art gallery, it takes a village to carry out his monumental projects.

Beginning with his early 1990s Earth Art-based work, he has employed multitudes of volunteers and expert practitioners to realize his vision.

For the MFAH, Cai has planned 42 panels upon which he (and his cast of 80 volunteers) will draw ancient Chinese motifs and sprinkle gunpowder, at which point the pieces will be ignited, leaving stunningly nuanced images in its wake. But before the fuse is lit on Oct. 6, and the finished product, Odyssey, is installed permanently, the panels must be prepared.

Cai's paper conservator Su Yue-Mei arrived from her workshop on Long Island, N.Y. on Sept. 12 to prepare the panels on the upper balcony of the Caroline Wiess Law building at the MFAH. The sweeping terrazzo-floor of the Miesian gallery has temporarily become the fabrication headquarters for Su and her assistants, Yuen Oi-Ling, Dai Ligang and Ma Jia.

Su has been collaborating with Cai for several years, but leverages a degree of expertise all her own that makes her unique in the United States. Trained in the northern school of Chinese paper mounting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, she perfected her technique during three years of study in Japan before arriving in New York in 1984. Since then, Su has worked with Cai on projects at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but she describes the MFAH as a "very special project in terms of its immediacy as a site-specific installation."

The distinctive paper that will serve as Cai's canvas consists of two sheets laminated together — the bottom layer is 100-percent rag paper from Taiwan; the top's distinctive texture is custom-made in Japan.

Arriving from Su's Long Island studio, the paper is now being pasted on the 42 fiberboard panels that were prefabricated at the MFAH's in-house workshop. Su's day at the MFAH begins with preparing the necessary starch paste for a single day's work. The adhesive arrives as gluten-free wheat starch in powder form, to which Su's team adds heat and distilled water.

While the paste cools, the group cleans the wooden panels, removing any dust remnants. Next, the paste is passed through a strainer to ensure a smooth consistency and then diluted with water.

With the paste formula perfected, the team tackles the project with an assembly-line approach. Tasks are assigned, from molding the paper to trimming it to the wood frame.

"It's very controlled and uniform as it wraps over," Tina Tan, the MFAH's own conservator, tells CultureMap.

A 1.5-inch-wide layer of starch paste is applied on both the panel and paper, and finally, the paper is applied to the panels' front and allowed to dry overnight. The following morning, a layer of paper is applied to the back of the panels.

The process is detailed and painstaking. "Overlapping is very minimal," Tan explains. "We don't want added thickness."

Once the back is dry, the team cuts out three cleats so that the panels will secure tightly to the wall. When a panel is complete, it is assigned a number that corresponds to Cai's sketch for the gallery.

"I think we're moving well in terms of progress," Tan says as she surveys the field of completed panels.

Su and her entourage will be at the MFAH through Thursday. Tan translated Su's response to Houston as "very friendly," elaborating that the museum has been impressively attentive to the studio's needs.

Her Houston foray has brought a seasoned hand to the walls at the MFAH, marking a first for both Su and the museum.