Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra is a milestone exhibition for Indonesian artists

Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia is a major, exciting and challenging exhibition guaranteed to change the way we think about the contemporary visual culture of our great northern neighbour.

Prior to this exhibition, in Australia we have seen only snippets of contemporary Indonesian art, primarily at the Asia-Pacific Triennials in Brisbane. Several years ago, the then director of the National Gallery of Australia, Gerard Vaughan, and his deputy director Kirsten Paisley, took a decision that it was important to stage a major survey of contemporary Indonesian art practice - the first such exhibition ever assembled in Australia. Three years later, there are 54 newly commissioned works and some 24 Indonesian artists presenting a fresh interpretation of Indonesian art of the past couple of decades.

In modern Indonesian history and culture there are three demarcated periods. The first, the period of independence under President Sukarno (1945-65), where the arts blossomed under his enlightened socialist-leaning policies together with guidance from the Chinese-born artist and arts administrator, Lee Man Fong. The second was the brutal, oppressive, right-wing and corrupt regime of General Suharto (1966-1998) where the left, unionists, Chinese and women's groups were victimised and frequently liquidated. Finally, there is the succeeding Reformasi (reformation) era that, in one form or another, continues through to the present. This show is a selection of art from the Reformasi era with many of the artists addressing some of the atrocities committed during Suharto's New Order dictatorship that had such a devastating impact on artists, the intelligentsia, ethnic Chinese, the environment and the whole of Indonesia's social fabric.

This exhibition breathes of visual excitement, intellectual curiosity and technical ingenuity as it brings before us a kaleidoscopic and multi-faceted view of contemporary Indonesian art that we are invited to see, hear and experience. There is a strong performative aspect to many of the pieces, and sound and layers of sound are a feature of much of the work on display. Although many of the artists employ the common parlance of biennale art and have gone through the cosmopolitan leveller of European (particularly German) exposure, the heightened colour palette and the presentation of a soundscape in many of the exhibits emerge as their identifying national characteristic - their Indonesian DNA.

FX Harsono, at the age of 70, is the senior artist at the exhibition and his expansive Gazing on collective memory (2016) is the exhibit that visitors first encounter on entering the exhibition. Finding a point of reference in the work of Christian Boltanski, Harsono commemorates his ancestry from the much-discriminated Chinese ethnic minority, where photographs and electric candles in his installation engage with themes of loss, memory and death.

Apart from a few mature and established artists, most of the selected artists for this exhibition are quite young - some very young - who only emerged in the Reformasi era, with their work reflecting a rawness, freshness, great energy and fecundity of ideas. Tita Salina in 1001st island - the most sustainable island in the archipelago (2015) has created an island out of plastic waste fished out of Jakarta Bay held together by a fishing net. The lack of subtlety may highlight something of the catastrophic state of the environment in many parts of the country.

Agus Suwage's Wall of tolerance (2012), one of the highlights in this exhibition, with its gold-plated brass ears listening to a cacophony of noise, and Entang Wiharso's Temple of Hope: Door to Nirvana (2018), one of the few profoundly tranquil and meditative installations at the exhibition, all contribute to the richness of this soundscape of Indonesian art.

This is a significant milestone exhibition that redefines much of our thinking about contemporary Indonesian art practice. Although far from comprehensive, this sampler of contemporary art will inspire interest and understanding in an aspect of fresh art emerging out of a huge country of over 264 million people that is destined to play a significant role in our neighbourhood.