Art as health hazard is an unusual concept that had its first airing at the Hayward Gallery in London yesterday.

Visitors to the latest work by Antony Gormley, the Turner prizewinning sculptor and creator of the iconic Angel Of The North, complained of feeling distressed and disorientated by the experience of entering his new walk-in installation.

“That’s the point,” Mr Gormley told The Times, as though distressed that the public had not grasped the concept at once. It was, he insisted, perfectly safe. Blind Light, a room-size glass box placed within one of the galleries, is filled with a constant cloud of mist so dense that it literally blinds anyone who enters.

Visibility within a box measuring 10m x 8m x 3m high is so restricted that people find themselves walking hesitantly with outstretched arms to ensure that they do not crash into anyone or anything. The artist accepted that the exit is impossible to detect until you are inches away from it.

Susan Gotensparre, a photographer from Sweden, staggered out saying she had panicked about not being able to find the door. She said: “I felt claustrophobic. I didn’t know where to go out. It was quite distressing. I couldn’t see anyone. I couldn’t hear anyone.”

Another visitor was overheard telling the artist that she had felt panicked. Even a curator at the Hayward, Jacky Klein, admitted that she had felt claustrophobic. As she spoke to The Times, the gallery’s public relations consultant signalled with nervous hand movements that she really should stop making such comments.

Gormley said that people could always cry for help: “Someone can hear you. You can’t see the door, but you can hear a distant voice out of the cloud that says, ‘I’m coming’.”

Precisely how a guard could find someone who had perhaps fainted remained unclear. A spokeswoman said that those with claustrophobia would not want to enter the installation anyway.

Although there is no warning in the gallery, the catalogue mentions the hazard in the small print: “This installation is deliberately disorientating with very limited visibility and water under foot. Please note that there is a single entrance/exit. Visitors with asthma, claustrophobia or of a nervous disposition are advised to exercise caution when entering.” Blind Light, which is said to involve distilled water going through ultraviolet purifiers before being released into the atmosphere, has taken a large team, including academics and air-conditioning experts, some three years to construct.

To the untrained eye, it could be mistaken for no more than a funfair attraction. Asked how it differed, Ms Klein said: “You don’t get funfairs in galleries. What makes an artwork is its position, its placement.”

The 1994 Turner Prize winner is no stranger to controversy. Two years ago, it emerged that the British taxpayer had paid for him to build a snow-man in the Arctic, where it could be seen only by a few polar bears.

The Gormley installation is among new works unveiled yesterday before the public opening on May 17. The Hayward describes it as “one of the most exciting and ambitious exhibitions of recent years”.

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