Don’t tell me how long to look at art

More and more our experience at exhibitions is prescribed, as if we won’t understand unless we look for a set time. That kind of art should be banned from galleries

One of my most powerful experiences of contemporary art was the first time I got lost inside Mike Nelson’s installation The Coral Reef. This labyrinth of seedy urban corridors and waiting rooms is a frightening and uneasy place, because you lose track of where, and when, you are. You can be cast adrift from time and space on this treacherous reef. And that casting adrift – especially from time – is, for me, the definition of an interesting work of art.

From an installation by Nelson to a painting by Thomas Gainsborough, the wonder of art is deeply connected with how it can un-anchor you from time. Instead of rushing to the next deadline or message, you can forget that it is 2014, for a moment, and linger in the other-time, created by art.

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