Perfect’s Brujo takes its title from Carlos Castenada’s 1968 book The Teachings of Don Juan, which is an anthropological thesis often associated with hippie culture; a ‘brujo’ is a shaman or sorcerer. “All fables and stories have some purpose or resonance to them,” explains Perfect. “I like the idea of an anthropologist going out into the desert and being broken down. This painting is also influenced by Robert Bly’s writings on masculinity and ritual, expectations and inculcations. The world of the imagination is a world of magic. It’s the anthropic principle that we project our inner contents on to outer objects: canvases are objects I project on to. In this way paintings are magical things. They are powerful objects like totems or icons.”