The soundtrack is full of ambient noise: revving engines, the whirr of wheels spinning as the vehicles get bogged down, the voices of spectators cheering the men on and the distant sound of the waves. From time to time the camera lingers on images of the sea lapping the shoreline.
Long shots attest to the number of vehicles involved in the pastime rows of cars like monolithic beasts lumber slowly up the hillside, mapping the terrain in furrowed lines. Sequences of cars trying to negotiate tricky gradients are interspersed with shots showing the gathering crowd as the day progresses. The vehicle is positioned at a precarious angle as the driver revs his engine an attempt to propel up an almost vertical slope. The video begins with the startling image of a man struggling to drive a large white four-wheel drive car up a steep incline. Large sports utility vehicles converge on the hills at weekends, when in a show of macho prowess locals engage in informal competitions to scale the most precipitous slopes. The video, just under eight minutes long, features footage of men driving four-wheel drive vehicles in the dusty coastal hills outside Tel Aviv.
Kings of the Hill is a single-screen video installation produced in an edition of five Tate’s copy is fourth in the series.
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