Johnson work explores his own recovery journey through the character of Joey the Fish — an innocent, expressive, and quietly melancholic being navigating a world shaped by risk, consequence, and repair.

Joey inhabits an ocean disrupted by urbanisation and human neglect. Floating or resting on the seabed, a discarded beer can frequently appear — a small, ordinary object that carries disproportionate weight. It signals addiction, harm, and the quiet normalisation of behaviour that can have serious personal and environmental consequences. Told with restraint and subtle humour, the narrative reflects lived experience: moments of poor judgement, accountability, and the long, often unglamorous work of change.

 

The work is created using analogue animation processes, including flip-books, light boxes and stark black-and-white line drawings. These hand-made methods deliberately resist digital and AI-driven production, standing in opposition to speed, automation, and the detachment of doom-scrolling culture. The practice insists on presence — both in making and in looking.

There is a deliberate slowness to the pacing of the work. This slowness mirrors recovery itself and draws attention to the hidden dangers embedded in what we often consider mundane or harmless. Johnson highlights how complacency — what we overlook, excuse, or take for granted — can become the greatest risk of all.

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DAVID JOHNSON

2026

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