For Slow Art Day, Cai Guo-Qiang’s “Odyssey” April 1, 2020
Cai Guo-Qiang's Odyssey lines the walls of the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Arts of China Gallery.
Ignition of Cai Guo-Qiang's Odyssey (Houston, October 2010)
Cai Guo-Qiang, Odyssey, 2010, gunpowder and pigment on paper, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum commission with funds provided by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund, and the Chao Family in honor of Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao, with additional funds from Friends of Asian Art 2010. © Cai Guo-Qiang
Arts of China Gallery
Cai Guo-Qiang, Odyssey, 2010, gunpowder and pigment on paper, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum commission with funds provided by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund, and the Chao Family in honor of Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao, with additional funds from Friends of Asian Art 2010. © Cai Guo-Qiang
Cai Guo-Qiang's Odyssey lines the walls of the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Arts of China Gallery.
Saturday, April 4, is the 10th annual worldwide Slow Art Day, when all of us are encouraged to spend real time with a work of art: at least 5 to 10 minutes—more than the 30 seconds studies have shown is our average when we encounter a work of art in a museum or gallery.
Even though the MFAH is temporarily closed, we still honor the spirit of Slow Art Day. You can spend time with the art collections online here. And you can watch this seven-minute, slowed-motion film of the two-week process in 2010 that led to the creation of one of the most popular works of art in the MFAH collections. Odyssey, the mural installation by Cai Guo-Qiang, lines the walls of the Arts of China Gallery.
► Watch as the artist, along with dozens of volunteers and MFAH staff as his assistants, realizes this monumental work in a Houston warehouse, using brushes and ink; X-Acto knives and craft-paper stencils; hand-laid hemp paper; and gunpowder.
