When Lonnie Holley started making art in 1978, he did not conceive an art environment or a yard show as such displays are often described. But over the years his prolific art output began to find a form. Over 2-acres of woodland adjoining the Birmingham Airport, Holley began arranging and re-arranging his works. He would travel looking for materials to create his works—alongside creeks, down railway lines. And selectively, he would bring these materials back to his yard. Soon, it became impossible to distinguish between art and the materials it was created from. The Environment, as it became known, was a sprawling adventure of color, texture, materials, household items, clothing, and art objects. As he says in the film—he was one of the first re-cyclers. Here are some photographs of the ever-changing Environment that would eventually be destroyed in 1997 to make way for an airport expansion that never occurred.
