Hi vis. I’ve been thinking about this phrase, this phrase hi vis, Highly visible, High and visible, Visibly high, who is visible, who is high, do you need to be high to be visible – high up to be visible – or is it just a better place to see from… how high is high and by visible do we mean sharp focus or does a kind of blurry rose tinted vision suffice. What I mean is, if you need to get up high to look, that also makes you visible and what does it mean to be visible what are the stakes on the visibility and do you only know you were visible when you tip or fall or choose to climb back down and look up at the hi vis from underneath, or or – the belly of the visible, occupying hi vis’s underside Or maybe What I mean is, something about an outline and complicating a comprehensive view. That bit of high vis that is often overlooked. What I mean is Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas expressed her frustration with being forced to lip sync on the Ed Sullivan show by peeling and eating a banana on stage while pretending to sing A kind of neon sensibility, potassium rich Flipping it.

Hi vis, highly visible, obscuring elements to make them highly visible, like – for instance - when Andy Warhol bought his Long Island estate it came fully furnished and he turned all the books in the library round – spines in pages out – so so – they were highly visible in a different way. I wonder if the books were ever read, and – this form of noticing feels high vis, getting up high to see differently, the belly turned outwards, sort of underneath.

Or rather – finding a way out from the visible and how this itself becomes hi vis - This bit of high with that bit of visible, sort of like - I watched as she fell over on the platform and he sort of pushed her, or rather that bit of falling with this bit of failing to help her stand up. or rather something between her trying to stand up and him trying but not exactly helping and then she fell back down and and… In this scenario I watched the visibility shift from low to high, neither one seeing the other but both visible so in this situation it was kind of his vis slowed down, a different kind of flip - What I mean is, the stakes on the visibility were shifting back and forth, but I couldn’t catch the bit it switched and / and what does it mean to want to notice this? When does high vis become in-vis and how can I catch it?

What I mean is, Last Wednesday, for instance, I left this opening to go to that talk and I wanted to linger and be in both places at once and feeling seen rather than visible, Being seen but not visible, seeing but invisible, highly visible and unseen or highly seen but invisible I wanted to linger and be invisible, or rather, navigate the exposure of the early exit, the portal of the doorway in a non hi vis way, which made it feel more hi vis, a mouthful of plum wine breathe out, and and I’m standing in the doorway Spine still in the room, pages already out. And - this point of exit is where I feel most visible, a heightened visibility but my back’s to it, so it’s kind of low visibility, or rather, a rose tinted blurry hi vis

Or rather – hmm- the moment between leaving and arriving, between leaving the opening arriving at the talk sort of neither visible nor invisible, but present, on pause

High vis’s way out

Like peeling a banana while pretending to sing

Like turning your books to the wall

Like the slip between vertical and horizontal

or maybe a melting pot where seen and visible and exposed seem to blur and shift:

the part where you dramatize your exit, maybe dramatize your exit and make some peace with that.

Or rather

Switch it

spines facing in, pages facing out

Hi Vis, Text Commissioned by ‘Hi Vis Collective’

As part of the inaugural exhibition at They Come. They Sit. They Go., Finch Gallery, London Fields

2nd May 2025