The West Australian Pulse 2024: curator Bahar Sayed delves into the annual exhibition at The Art Gallery of WA

The West Australian Pulse 2024 curator Bahar Sayed’s own career trajectory is the epitome of The West Australian Pulse ethos, showing how a vocation in the arts can take you along unexpected pathways. While growing up in the northern suburbs of Perth, the second-generation Afghan-Australian’s parents always encouraged curiosity, creativity and playfulness, which for Sayed, came through the form of music. It was not until she started engaging with Perth’s live music scene and the world of online blogging that the rest of the art world revealed itself to her, accessible through different local art communities. “I did my undergrad in film and broadcasting, then I worked in the industry for a little bit and ended up in a documentary crew working in Morocco,” Sayed explains. “The conversations that I got to have on that project coincided with the sort of books that I’d been reading in my own personal life. I made the decision to go back to university and study my post grad in theology, specifying in Islamic Studies and Middle Eastern politics. “My practice is a lot of thinking, writing and programming. I am very much in the world that enjoys meaning making and interpreting concepts that make up a work.” It led to a job at The Art Gallery of Western Australia, where she is currently working on her third The West Australian Pulse — second as its curator — showcasing 60 works by 2023 Year 12 visual arts graduates, selected from 36 schools across WA. Sayed says the impressive and eclectic survey of Year 12 artworks offers audiences an insight into the minds and hearts of young creatives on themes surrounding body and gender, critiques on capitalism and its effects on environment, culture and identity, mental health and technology. “These are kind of consistent themes, I would say, but for the past couple of years, we’ve noticed sort of the criticism angles differently,” Sayed adds. “So you can definitely see development in the way that younger artists are thinking and engaging with universal concepts. “It’s also reflective of the visual arts curriculum, so what we get is also informed by what school curriculums look like and what a school’s resourcing has capacity for as well.” Sayed cites it as a rewarding position to be involved in the Pulse experience for young artists, feeling fulfilled by seeing their excitement and being a small part of that transition, post-high school, into their own careers. “I enjoy being around the pride that their support system also share,” she says. “I think arts education is incredibly valuable and I work alongside a very committed and passionate group of people at AGWA. Personally, it keeps me informed on new ways of seeing and thinking and expressing. For my own practice, it offers me new ways of thinking about, pairing and presenting works.” Now in its 32nd year, this year’s Pulse program begins with free annual visual arts exhibition The West Australian Pulse 2024 opening to the public on April 6, alongside a three-day Pulsefest opening weekend celebrating youth creativity across multiple art forms from fashion, dance and performance to music and writing. The Pulse program of events — including talks, forums, workshops and live performance — will continue at AGWA throughout the entirety of the exhibition until it closes on October 6. “The arts across many different disciplines will be showcased,” Sayed says. “By doing this, it reinforces the many different avenues in the arts, and how they all support and relate to one another in a really interconnected industry. As has been a recurring theme in this conversation, in the way that teams work and arts education works, it’s the same for the overlapping in the arts. It’s because of how the art world is so fluid and subjective, that is allows for new and interesting ways of thinking. “It’s showcasing the possibility within the arts … These students and young artists have gotten here from their own drive, but for a lot of them, without trying to be so generalising, it was through support from a teacher or a school, or a parent or a guardian figure. So the sort of community that comes around arts is really important. “It’s the gallery’s commitment to nurturing creativity in WA and offering those opportunities and highlighting the importance of arts and arts education and arts community, not just for the arts world, but also for wider WA society and culture.” The West Australian Pulse is at AGWA, April 6 to October 6. Pulse events program at artgallery.wa.gov.au.