Rewind: From The Vault

To welcome the coming Year of the Pig, we roll the tape back 50 years to Chinese New Year 1969,the Year of the Rooster. ABC spoke with locals in Sydney's Chinatown about the festivities and their views on mainland China.

In the 1950's, Mary Rossi hosted the quaint and cheerful 'Woman's World'. In this segment from 1957, she reviews fashions from a recent trip abroad, predicted to be all the rage in the approaching 1960's.

Danila Vassilieff (1897-1958) was a Russian-Australian painter and sculptor. In this clip, artist Albert Tucker and critic Robert Hughes reflect on Vassilieff's often overlooked contribution to Modernism in Australian art.

In 1980s Sydneys Mardi Gras was under threat of being banned. This was the communitys response

Janet Laurence is an installation artist whose work explores the intersection of art and science. Revisit her 2000 exhibition 'Transpiration', featuring taxidermic animals, specimens and other bewitching paraphernalia.

'The Dinner Party' is an installation work by American artist Judy Chicago commemorating women overlooked by history. The work is now considered iconic of 1970's feminist art but was initially snubbed by the arts community.

In memory of Keith Flint, front man of British electronic group The Prodigy, we revisit this 1997 Recovery interview. Along with his flame-red hair, Flint will be remembered as one of the iconic figures of 90's rave culture.

Hans Heysen (1877 - 1968) was renowned for his paintings of the Australian bush and its defining gums. In 1964, the ABC interviewed the then 87-year-old about his work and the importance of what can been 'seen and felt'.

Edmund Capon's 33-year tenure as Director of the Art Gallery of NSW had a lasting impact on Australia's cultural landscape. In his memory, we revisit this 1994 interview with Capon on post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin.

For World Poetry Day, catch this 1963 interview with Judith Wright, 'nature poet', passionate conservationist and supporter of the Aboriginal land rights movement, discussing the role of poetry in illuminating nature.

The little-known Charis Schwarz was an eroticist and muse for her lifelong partner, surrealist George Schwarz. Amid 1970's hippiedom and second wave feminism, GTK spoke with about her customised FJ Holden as a work of art.

On the 4th of April this year, Heath Ledger would have been 40-years-old. In this 2006 interview with Tracey Bowden, the beloved Australian actor talks about working on 'Brokeback Mountain' and how the film changed his life.

"Politicians come and go, but art remains", said gallerist Colin Stanley Hill of Jackson Pollock's infamous abstract work 'Blue Poles', first displayed in Australia in 1974. 45 years on, we revisit the debate about its value.

In 1969, this 62-year-old had posed for some of the biggest names in Australian art. In her youth, Iris King worked as a dancer and actor but was determined, in her later years, to prove that 'age has nothing to do with art.'

To mark the 20th anniversary of Arthur Boyd's death, we revisit this 1993 interview filmed at his former home 'Bundanon'. On the banks of the Shoalhaven River, Bundanon inspired many of Boyd's renowned landscape paintings.

Cosi is a play about a young director who stages an opera in a psychiatric hospital. During rehearsals at the Darwin Theatre Company in 1994, the ABC spoke to playwright Louis Nowra about the story and its inspiration.

In memory of the renowned Australian poet Les Murray, we revisit the intimate, accessible, and personal nature of his poetry in this segment filmed just after Murray won the prestigious T. S. Eliot Prize for poetry in 1997.

On a train station platform in 1959, a British reporter stopped the iconic Spanish Surrealist artist Salvador Dali to ask him for a self-definition.

Does fashion belong in an art gallery? This is the question posed by one reporter to 60's fashion designer Hall Ludlow and a rather perturbed Robert Hughes at a gallery show in 1961.

Paying tribute to former Prime Minister Bob Hawke this week, we roll back the tapes to the 10th anniversary of Countdown in 1984. A fan of the show, Hawkie described Countdown as "for the young, and the young at heart."

Speaking with some of the iconic musicians of the 1970's, including Blondie, Rose Royce, and Kate Bush, Countdown looked back on a decade of music and the rise of Disco.

In 1968, Four Corners produced this profile of Sheila Scotter; style icon and former Editor of Vogue Australia. Affectionately nicknamed the Silver Duchess, Scotter was known for only ever wearing black and white.

'Hair' the musical made its Australian debut fifty years ago this month. At a time when controversial art was subject to censorship, this reporter asked the cast whether nudity in the show was 'cause for concern.'

Dubbed the most painted face in Australian art, Margaret Olley spoke with the ABC in 1995 about her lifelong obsession with painting and objects.

n this tongue-in-cheek report, the ABC's Bob Connelly interviews journalists, miffed at being kept waiting by a then 24-year-old Mick Jagger. As one journo quips, "He's no Cary Grant, is he?"

Fred Williams became the first Australian to exhibit at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1977. In this profile, art critic Robert Hughes meditates on Williams' work and visits him at his studio in Melbourne.

This reporter took to the streets of Melbourne to gauge reactions to a public artwork comprised of six saucepans, 120 bricks and five blankets. He garnered some pretty hilarious responses in his efforts to make sense of it.

In 1999, Deborah Mailman was fast becoming a household name after her star turn in Radiance, for which she received an AFI award. She sat down with the Art Show to talk about her career aspirations and love of performing.

In 1960, Barbara McNamara became the first woman to win the Miles Franklin Award for her novel 'The Irishman', which she published under the pseudonym Elizabeth O'Conner.

Ahead of ACDC's electric international debut touring High Voltage to Britain, the ABC's Countdown program nabbed the band for a cheeky airport lounge interview.

Ahead of releasing his 1983 album Let's Dance, David Bowie spoke with Molly Meldrum in Sydney about his collaboration with Iggy Pop, working on stage and screen, and what he learnt about writing from John Lennon.

This month marks 60 years since the prodigious landscape painter and Arrernte man Albert Namatjira passed away. In 1958, the ABC's Weekend Magazine traveled to Central Australia to visit him; painting despite a broken arm.

In August 1979, the trailblazing film My Brilliant Career was released. 40 years on, director Gillian Armstrong reflects on its impact and what it was like to be one of the only female voices in Australian film at the time.

This charming little report from 1960 features the latest trends in shoe fashion: everything from ski boots, golf shoes and dance slippers to a prize-winning shoe embedded with a compass for those suffering from wanderlust!

Performance artist Penny Arcade brought her stage show 'Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore!' to Belvoir St Theatre in 1994 and talked to Stephen Feneley about its inception.

In 1969, artist Christo wrapped Little Bay in one million square feet of fabric. Like all good public art, it sparked community debate about what constitutes art, and inspired this reporter to make his own wrap installation.

In 1987, the fabulously stylish Australian designer Jenny Kee sat down with the ABC's Peter Ross to talk about her cultural and artistic influences, why she left Australia, and her passion for knitted jumpers.

Before Q and A, there was 'Monday Conference'. In 1973, Frank Zappa made a guest appearance, fielding questions from the public about the rock revolution and its influence on youth, sex, drug, and political cultures.

A look inside the Melbourne-based fashion house of 1960's trend-setter and designer Lily Wightman, dubbed by this ABC reporter as 'the dictator of fashion'.

In 1997, author Margaret Atwood joined the ABC's Suzy Baldwin on 'Dialogue' for a candid chat about gender politics, cross-cultural cannibalism, and the important role of the wicked stepmother.

Find out why Melbourne suddenly found the need to build a gallery of great significance on St Kilda Road, and how the site went from being a pile of rubble and ideas to become one of the world's most visited art museums.

First, see how the Wurlitzer Theatre Organ provided all the music and sound effects for films in the early 20th century. Then find out how to learn the keyboard in five minutes, and how to fit a pipe organ in your bedroom.

Judy Garland's Australian tour ended in disaster, but before those troubles, she told the ABC why she keeps on performing, why she loves cooking, and how proud she is of her daughter Liza.

Artist Guan Wei migrated to Australia following the events in Tiananmen Square in 1989, bringing with him a taste of the Chinese Avant-Garde, combining political themes with subtle narrative and humour.

Two Australian musicians shepherd the Australian music scene towards the 80s with this wild mix of synth and acoustic percussion.

A rare peek behind the scenes as the INXS team attempt to record a promo for their latest single 'Kiss the Dirt'. Michael Hutchence must hide a mark on his neck that he swears is not a hickey.

On the cusp of the worldwide success brought on by the INXS track 'What You Need', Molly Meldrum corners band members Michael and Tim backstage after a show, to find out how the band decides which songs become singles.

The band express mixed feelings over their first American tour. The response has been astounding, but are the crowd actually listening to what this group of young, proud Australians have worked so hard to make?

Kirk, Michael and Garry from INXS feel lucky to be Australian, but that doesn't mean they think Australian when it comes to forging international careers.

It's 1996. Having taken a brief hiatus to give themselves space for their private lives, INXS try to forget the unwanted media attention and just get back to making music.

The two lasting legacies of Norman Lindsay will be his much-loved children's book 'The Magic Pudding', and his prolific catalogue of painted nudes. 2019 marks 50 years since Lindsay's death.

Freddie Mercury reveals how to stay successful, and why it's dangerous to rest on your laurels.

This Australian invention shaped the sound of artists like Michael Jackson, Tears for Fears and Kate Bush. It brought "sampling" into the commercial world, a function that became the bedrock of 80s pop and techno music.

Clive James, Australia's urbane master of culture and chat, has died at age 80.

Mysterious Melbourne activists, the Gertrude Street Revivalists, are putting together an art exhibition to educate the public about the negative effects of gentrification in Fitzroy.