Allan Harding MacKay situated his recent installation, Source/Derivations II, 1992, within the historical framework of Canadian painting, examining the relationship between depicted nature and real experience. MacKay has based 35 variations on one primary source, a widely reproduced painting by Lawren Harris, created around 1930. This exercise attempts to sever ties with the landscape painting tradition, presenting instead a facsimile of nature for our investigation.

Harding’s enterprise begins with Isolation Peak, one of Harris’ most popular works, a classic scene of a single mountain peak