A personal statement is in the making...until then, you can peruse this bit of biographical info written by Emilie Trice, freelance writer and Assistant Director at Goff and Rosenthal in Berlin, Germany.

Anjelika Paranjpe, known to friends as Anjie, received her BA in Studio Art and Philosophy from Middlebury College, Vermont in 2005.  Her art reflects the multi-dimensionality of Anjie’s life, incorporating Indian and American culture, political awareness, interracial relationships and, above all, a whimsical sensibility.  Anjie also integrates and distorts traditional gender roles, combining inherently feminine craftwork with the historically masculine medium of sculpture. Ultimately, Anjie’s work is the manifestation of her passions, be it human rights and politics, sexuality or “the exotic”, a term often employed by western civilization to describe the eastern cultures from which she is directly descended. 

Even as a printmaker, Anjie utilizes embossing techniques to add three-dimensionality to a typically two-dimensional medium. For the collaborative project How to Make an American Quilt, Anjie pinned embossed scraps of red and blue paper with sewing needles onto a found quilt (purchased from a Vermont antique shop).  The prints depict images found in newspapers immediately following the re-election of the Bush administration.  The piece thus combines traditional feminine craft, represented by the straight pins and the quilt, with current political commentary, represented by the subject matter and its composition as a shattered American Flag.  As a whole, the piece refers to the apprehensible invasion of Iraq, confronting the masculine issue of war through the soft femininity of traditional craftwork.  

The Screens, exhibited at Middlebury College, displays Anjie’s simultaneous use of two symbolic mediums.  Welded steel creates untraditional canvases that are then “painted” by Indian fabric in vibrant colors, sewn around conjoined rectilinear frames.  The heavy geometry of the steel contrasts with the luminous fabric, which paints the floor with its reflection, creating the effect of stained glass.  The fabric becomes the sculptural focus, illuminating the beauty of its cultural origin and exoticism, as well as the pluralism of the Indian continent. 

Anjie’s solo exhibition The Pods, which opened at the Vermont Studio Center in 2005, further explores the incorporation of sewn fabric and sculpture, this time with a playful installation of an organic nature.  Anjie salvaged the scraps of fabric from hand-me-downs, symbolizing familial heritage as opposed to cultural.  The word “Pod” has several definitions, some more obvious than others.  A pod defined as a “developed ovary or fruit” accounts for the saying “a pea in the pod”, which connotes motherhood and family.  Similarly, when referring to animals, a pod is “a family or social group that stays together; roughly equivalent to a flock or school.”   The connection then between these organic shapes, reminiscent of the fruits for which they are titled, and the hand-me-down fabric is founded on the familial unit, which has become less nuclear and more dispersed in contemporary western society, unlike in India where multiple generations typically continue to live under the same roof. 

The “pods” were hung from the ceiling of the main space and scattered around the room in heaps.  The adjacent room acted as a vertical garden with “pods” growing from pipe cleaners attached to the walls in a frenzied, chaotic fashion.  The significance of the presentation says much about the strength of familial relationships; exposing the inherent truth that despite growing individually and being separated, all the “pods” were “cut from the same cloth” so to speak, and all members of the family unit or “pods” retain their common bond, no matter how scattered or dispersed.

During her time as an undergraduate, Anjie greatly contributed to the development of three artistic student initiatives, namely V.A.C.A. (Vitality of the Artistic Community Association), which sponsored numerous artistic events including monthly exhibitions in a student gallery among other venues on campus; the Mill, a residential organization dedicated to promoting cultural and diversity awareness; and ARTemis, a publication featuring student artwork, literature and poetry.  Anjie’s participation in these organizations was of the highest distinction, she was the Co-President of VACA, the Vice-President of the Mill and the Editor-in-Chief of ARTemis.  Without her enthusiasm and leadership these organizations would not have been able to exist, let alone create the artistic community that was ultimately nurtured into being and continues to exist as Anjie’s legacy at Middlebury.  This legacy testifies to Anjie’s devotion to the arts and culture, as well as her ability to unify her peers for a common cause.  She is not only an artist, but also a patron and champion of the arts and she will surely continue to create and inspire those around her for many years to come.

Her work is in the permanent collection of the Middlebury Center for the Arts and she has been awarded the NCCA Residency Fellowship, St. Petersburg, Russia; the Hermitage Residency Fellowship, New Pacific Studio, Mt. Bruce, New Zealand; and the Emerging Artist Fellowship, Global Arts Village, New Delhi, India.