Zines with poems and drawings, and activity packs on the theme of a local place-story were hand-delivered to locked-down residents for the Coxside Smoke Signal project (November 2020- May2021). Residents responded by returning their hand-made responses to drop-off points in the corner shop and local-café. The place-story was ‘told’ to Crab & Bee during early walks around the area. Later, they processed through the streets during the second lockdown for a ‘secret’ burning ritual on Teats Hill slipway The project culminated in a public ritual ‘Boat Burn’ by Crab & Bee when lockdown eventually lifted.
Helen Billinghurst is an interdisciplinary artist working in painting, drawing, film, poetry and performance. Her doctoral thesis explored the relationship between walking and making artworks in the studio. Solo exhibitions include Crossing England (2016), English Diagrams (2018) and Walking Diagrams (2019). Helen works in collaboration with Phil Smith as one half of creative duo Crab & Bee; their main focus is to explore and reveal the secrets of everyday spaces through artworks, publications, readings, scryings and performances.