
Ancient Rainforests: From Gondwana to Vanua
8th January -1st February
The MAC, 77 Beach Rd, Torquay VIC 3228, Australia
Entry:
Free
Ancient Rainforests: From Gondwana to Vanua
For a long time, I’ve wondered about the stories hidden within rainforests and what their sentient inhabitants might reveal if they could speak. When I began exploring the Otway Forests in Victoria, Australia, it felt as though the forests themselves were communicating with me. This feeling stayed with me as I journeyed through the ancient rainforests of Vanua Levu Island in Fiji with each landscape appeared to share its own tale. From Gondwana’s soil to Vanua’s volcanic land, every place became part of an ongoing narrative – Nature’s Language – a story not spoken aloud but conveyed in countless other ways. It’s a sensory world, woven with networks both visible and invisible. This exhibition showcases sketches, drawings, paintings and large paper scrolls that visually interpret Nature’s Language, mapping ecological memory and energy to reveal hidden patterns and ancestral knowledge within forest landscapes. The collection serves as a form of ecological storytelling, aiming to reconnect people with land, body with the biosphere, spirit with place, and being with belonging.
Opening Event - All Welcome
16 January 2026
6 PM
The MAC, 77 Beach Rd, Torquay VIC 3228, Australia
Dr Phillip B. Roös
Dr Phillip B. Roös is an artist, author, architect, and environmental philosopher whose creative practice is inspired by nature’s rhythms, forms, and hidden patterns. Deeply rooted in biophilia—the innate human connection to nature—his work spans drawing, painting, sculpture, and immersive installations, each reflecting his reverence for Earth’s living systems. Dr Roös’s art is shaped by a spiritual bond with the natural world, translating ecological memory and energy into visual narratives that invite reflection and reconnection. His large-scale scrolls and abstract landscapes evoke the sacredness and vulnerability of place, informed by his expertise in biophilia and the establishment of a biophilic pattern language. Merging science, philosophy, and art, his creations serve as acts of ecological storytelling, aiming to restore relationships between people and the land. Based between Australia and Fiji, where he established his interdisciplinary studio Roös Atelier, Dr Roös continues to create and educate at the intersection of art, ecology, and well-being, inspiring others to view the world through a lens of wholeness and renewal


