Eris Silke

Eris Silke the artist was born in 1947 in Transylvania, Romania. As elsewhere antisemitic 20^th century politics saw Transylvania’s once sizable Jewish population greatly reduced by Holocaust and emigration. In 1950 Eris’s parents joined the fold, having survived the Holocaust, they moved to Israel in 1950.

At the tender age of 5 Eris started drawing and fell in love with the application of pen to paper. An introvert by nature, she spent her childhood in the cocoon and fantasy world of the public library. Here, many of the early Israeli pioneers had translated the most graphic and grand works of fiction into Hebrew. Amidst the conjured characters incarcerated in the great books of German and British literature she played; her imaginary friends and the playground of her mind the confectionary of Victorian times. In her own words, “I was living in Victorian times in my mind.” 

This influence is evident throughout her grotesque sometimes horrifying, always heavily romanticized works of art and their fashion laden leaders. Plush medici collars, puffed out shoulder pads and embroidered corsets weave their threads throughout the tapestry of her works.

At 17 Eris Silke won a beauty pageant and became Miss Israel. At 18 she left Israel for the first time to California as the Israeli representative of the Miss World beauty contest. She made the 15 semi-finalists.

After the competition she had to go to NYC and was put up in a hotel only for women.

“They put me in a tiny room on the 24^th floor and it was terrible. I was not outgoing enough to have any fun. When I returned to Israel my mother questioned me as to why I did not come back with a millionaire or win the beauty competition. She was angry that I did not come back with any money. I finished my schooling and I went into the army. I was not confident and my best friends were already officers – I was behind in their timeline, having left Israel for the Miss World pageant. I was not the right person for the army and I was placed in Nazareth to file documents.”

“After a while, I received a beautiful letter from a headmaster at a teacher training college. He was an eccentric and used to read poetry. He had a nose job and wore a wig. I thought he was my soulmate. We got married.”

“The marriage was fraught with difficulty, him being in his thirties and me 18 and a half. He wanted decoration.”

Her husband at the time was offered a position in South Africa as the Professor of the Judaica Department and they subsequently left Israel for South Africa. They were placed in Johannesburg first and then relocated to Cape Town, Eris studied and received a degree in Psychology from the University of Cape Town. During this time, she separated from her husband and later met Jonathan Silke whom she married. It was Jonathan that convinced her to be an artist.

Louis and Charlotte Shachat of the esteemed Die Kunskamer Gallery in Cape Town, became Eris’s art dealers. During this period, Silke exhibited widely and her work migrated into important private collections. During the 1980’s she exhibited in solo shows at the Linda Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg, the Everard Reade Gallery in Cape Town and Die Kunskamer.

“My work then, was more controversial and more disturbing than right now." - Eris Silke