Installation Shot
from Stardust: a performance, 1981
Oil and prismacolor on feather panel,
Eleven slightly larger-than-life size cutout characters for the stage, seven for the audience and four for the lobby.

Remarks: "Stardust," was a performance piece written by Alexis Smith and design by me, Heidi Hardin, presented originally at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), in the Leo S. Bing Theater at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (as part of "Gallery Six," organized by the Museum’s Department of Modern Art to spotlight individual talents.) and at the La Jolla Museum. The LA County Press Release read, "Alexis Smith describes the text of "Stardust" as a collage of one-line excerpts from approximately 20 American books, plays and songs. Set and prop designer Heidi Hardin employees a visual collage method and based her sets on figures depicted in well-known early 20th Century photographs such as the Storyville Portraits and those by August Sanders. Using eight participants, Smith and Hardin blended these diverse elements into an exciting and multi-layered theatric artwork that commented on various aspects of American life and character." With the exception of "The Drum Major," which was left at the LA County Museum, all these artworks were destroyed in 1987 by an unfortunate personal calamity. The majority of artworks created by Ms. Hardin between 1971-1987 that had not been sold were also lost at this time.