Christopher Williams b. 1956
Supplement (2003)
Duration: 332 minutes

Supplement (2003), was produced by Ringier Television and runs to 332 minutes. Williams was given the facilities to work with the producers of a television cooking show, and as the video begins, the conventions of such a program are adhered to. A cheerful and handsome host enters, discusses mushroom varieties in front of a studio audience, and turns to a chef who demonstrates the preparation of a stock by piling ingredients into a pot to boil. At this moment, the cameras of a normal TV program would turn away as the chef reveals one that has been prepared earlier; however, Williams instructed his cameraman to record the pot right through the boiling and cooling process. In the installation, a viewer might enter the room to see the most banal of sights: chunks of carrots and potatoes bubbling in water. This might encourage them to sit and wait for a denouement, or provoke them to leave the room immediately, but either way, the video does its work in disturbing television conventions and in introducing the subject of time into the exhibition: the viewer either feels the sensation of waiting in front of something slow or of speeding by a video they have chosen not to watch. - Mark Godfrey, October Magazine