Untitled Installation, Review exhibition, 1981 After completion of 1 year at U of A, graduate students are required to exhibit a piece for the benefit of the faculty that displays the student's interests. The artist then asks any 5 faculty members to be on his or her "review committee." These 5 faculty would periodically meet to guide that student's artistic search. Hardesty had a problem. He was placed in U of A's "Design" program, though his primary interest was in studio arts. This piece is significant in 2 ways. One, it is Hardesty's very first installation. He says he'd never even heard the term "installation art" in 1981. If so, this piece is remarkably inventive. Second, it's an very coy synthesis of graphic design principles and sculptural ideas. With this installation, Hardesty was able to acquire the unprecedented combination of two representatives from the Design program, two from the Studio program, and one from Art History, signing up on his review panel. A clever solution to his problem of being cross-disciplinary.