THERE has been a gaping space in the gallery area of the Rotunda in Exchange Square for far too long. This is tough on the culture-seeking suits who work there, who have also lost at least two galleries, Plum Blossoms and Schoeni - driven into Mid-Levels by the high rents.
So it is nice to see the landlords, Hongkong Land, forking out for this new show, The Scottish Renaissance, to give their residents some visual stimulation.
The works are varied: abstract, figurative, portraits, urban landscapes. The common link: all their creators are Scottish. Some are familiar names; the most famous, perhaps, is John Bellany who is making his second appearance at the Rotunda in the last 12 months. The exhibition runs until March 16.
It is a little known fact that while Jiang Qing reigned as cultural head during the Cultural Revolution, and insisted the masses munch a compulsory diet of revolutionary classics like The White-Haired Girl and The Red Detachment of Women, she secretly had The Sound of Music smuggled over and learned all the words to Edelweiss.
Bear this in mind if you choose to go to see any of the films showing this week at the Arts Centre in 'A Selection of Chinese Ideology' (Saturday onwards).
Curator Jimmy Choi has managed to track down several versions of these epics, including a 1972 ballet version of The White-Haired Girl and a Beijing Opera, circa 1970, telling of Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy. This is not to demonstrate any artistic or technical effect, but to remind us how unimaginative propaganda used to be.
Even Winona Ryder did not manage to convince the cynics that there is anything interesting about quilting, but the Hong Kong Patchwork and Quilting Show, at Island School this weekend, is going to do its best.