2008

Chocolate

American, born 1978

Melanie Bilenker studied under Sharon Church at the University of the Arts and now lives and works in Philadelphia. She has revived the use of hairwork and created her own formal vocabulary, and in so doing has created a unique body of jewelry. Chocolate depicts an intimate scene of the artist on her bed savoring a bar of chocolate. The photographic quality, texture, and perspective of this work are achieved by the delicate placement of pieces of Bilenker's own hair, which become the physical remnant of the ephemeral moment she depicts.