In 1979 Lonnie Holley (American, born 1950) began to make and exhibit sculptures that drew on his hardscrabble life experiences and his ruminations on lessons to be found in everyday materials—discarded junk. Soon much of his energy was devoted to creating an environmental work on the one-acre property he owned on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama. In 1997 city authorities claimed the land and ultimately destroyed everything on it in preparation for an airport expansion.