Source/Derivations: Allan Harding MacKay by Robert Staceywith an essay by Terrance Heath 8vo. pp. 208. black and white illustrations. biography. bibliography. wrappers. [Windsor: Art Gallery of Windsor, 1998]. Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Art Gallery of Windsor, January 21 to March 13, 1994.New. ISBN-10: 0919837476 / ISBN-13: 9780919837478______________________________________________________________________________________________ JUST WHAT IS "ORIGINAL"? Source/Derivations is the first full-length monograph on the important contemporary Canadian artist Allan Harding MacKay. Its focus is the series of installations in which MacKay pays homage to fellow artmakers past and present, spinning mixed-media variations on potent source images, such as Tom Thomson's Northern River, Lawren Harris's Isolation Peak, and Ron Benner's As dark as the grave wherein by friend is laid (the title of which alludes to a posthumously published Malcolm Lowry novel). These complex, multi-layered works challenge such loaded notions as "original" and "originality," while leading us back to the true fons et origo of creative so(u)rcery itself.
