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Bake Challah - Make Art
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Bake Challah, Make Art

Rob Shostak — FENTSTER — @ParchmentProject

FENTSTER is a window gallery in downtown Toronto presenting site-specific installations connected to the Jewish experience. FENTSTER is teaming up with Toronto-based artist Rob Shostak for a new exhibition (opening April 2022) drawing upon a community-contributed collection of parchment papers used to bake challah loaves for Shabbat.

We are calling on everyone, from first-time challah bakers to pros, to contribute parchment papers leftover from the baking process to this community effort!

 

I see the act of baking as a form of mark-making with the imprint of the irregular braids or forms providing a hint to the unique structure of the bread. Each imprint says something uniquely individual about the baker and our cultural traditions, even as we are engaged in a shared communal activity.

- Rob Shostak

While today challah typically refers to the braided loaf common in Ashkenazi Jewish tradition, there are many traditions for bread at the Shabbat and Holiday table influenced by geographic and cultural factors. We welcome parchment papers that leave the mark of your traditions that animate Jewish life in your home.

A short history of challah can be found here.

We can’t wait to see your parchments and bakes!

If you have a parchment to contribute, you can still participate in the installation by mailing it in.

Details are below!

Follow us! @ParchmentProject | @fentster_gallery | @Robonto

Get in touch - ParchmentProjectBakes@gmail.com | info@fentster.org
   

How to Participate

Step 1        Bake challah on a white parchment paper (around 15” × 10”)

Step 2        Save the parchment paper

Step 3        Take overhead photos of your challahs

Step 4        Email your photos and info, then mail in your parchment papers

Step 4        Drop-off and pick-up options may be available (see below)

Step 4        Addresses are in the detailed instructions below

Detailed Instructions

Step 1: You Bake

Use any challah recipe, from a family tradition to a gluten-free loaf, braided, round or otherwise. There are hundreds of recipes out there with different flavours to suit every taste and tradition. If you’re stuck or it’s your first time, consider Molly Yeh’s Challah which has great dough to work with. Don’t stop at just one. Bake more challot - share them with friends, family, and neighbours, or donate to organizations that accept home baked goods.

Step 2: Save the Parchment Paper

To keep the installation consistent :

  • Use white parchment
  • Parchment should measure around 15” × 10”
    (about the size of a standard baking sheet)
  • Don’t worry about cutting a clean edge

Feel free to collect several parchments over time and contribute them together!

*To avoid damage, please do not fold your parchment papers. See Step 4 for some helpful packing tips.

Step 3: Take Photos

Take at least one overhead photograph, preferably on a plain white/simple neutral background, of:

  1. your baked challah

Optional:

  1. your parchment paper

Try to match the examples shown on the right, and photograph each loaf separately.

Feeling inspired? Take extra photos of your baking process and your challah. Get creative, have fun with it!

Please note that by sending your photos, you maintain copyright and grant a worldwide non-exclusive, royalty free, irrevocable license to Rob Shostak, with no limit to their use online, in print, or by any other means both invented or to be invented. (This mostly means that you allow Rob and FENTSTER to use them, for example on Instagram and other mediums, but you still own the copyrights to the photos. Please indicate if you prefer not to be mentioned by name.)

If you have any questions or concerns please email  ParchmentProjectBakes@gmail.com. I would be happy to discuss how the photos and other materials may be used for this project.

Step 4: Contributing Your Parchments, Photos, and Stories

Please note that all contributions will gratefully become a part of this project, and we thank you for understanding that it will not be possible to return your submissions.


Together with your parchment paper(s), please enclose a note with:

  • Your name and general location
    (ie. city or neighbourhood)
  • Email, Instagram, or other social media handles
  • The date your challah (or bread) was baked

Optional: We also welcome receiving (handwritten or by email):

  • The recipe you used to make the challah, please credit the source
  • Any challah-related story you’d like to share

Submitting Photos, Stories, Recipes

Handwritten materials can be enclosed with your parchment papers for pickup or mail.

All other materials can be sent to: ParchmentProjectBakes@gmail.com

 

Challah Bake Along

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Challah Bake Along with artist Rob Shostak in conversation with Lauren Schreiber Sasaki of Jewish&.

They prepared a braided challah together while chatting about his FENTSTER installation, Shabbat traditions, and his other artwork.

Watch this online workshop any time:

fentster.org/challah-bake

Presented by FENTSTER, Miles Nadal JCC,
LGBTQ+ at the J, and The Museum of Jewish Montreal

Pick ups

Pick up can be arranged within a limited geography in downtown Toronto.

Drop a note to see if we can accomodate: ParchmentProjectBakes@gmail.com or on Instagram @ParchmentProject.

Mail

Team up with friends and send them all together!

Rob Shostak

PO Box 99900 RF 585 764

RPO Liberty Village

Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V 0M5

Email ParchmentProjectBakes@gmail.com or send a DM on Instagram @ParchmentProject for more info.

*To avoid damage, please do not fold your parchment papers.

 

 

Some packing tips:

Flat Packing

- Sandwich the papers between 2 pieces of sturdy cardboard (cut a bit larger than the parchment) and package in an envelope or wrap paper.
- Place any other materials you send on the outside of the cardboard sandwich.
- Write DO NOT BEND across the envelope.

Tube Mailer (more economical option)

- Roll your parchment and send it in a tube mailer. - Try not to roll it too tightly to ensure the image does not flake off.

     

About the Artist

Rob Shostak is a multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto, Canada, whose work navigates the intersection of place, memory, and time. Shostak’s work has been exhibited at The Gladstone Hotel, the Toronto waterfront, the Bentway, among others, and appeared in Architectural Record, Azure, Domus, The Toronto Star, BlogTO, CBC, CityTV among others. Alongside these professional accomplishments, he is known for dressing up in his own custom designs of Toronto landmarks for Halloween. This ongoing project is the true display of his love for Toronto, and his passion for city building and community. Shostak is a co-founder of (Studio(Venn)Studio) - a queer-led multidisciplinary arts collective with Dionisios Vriniotis.
Robonto.com | @Robonto 

 

buoybuoybuoy, 2017
Winterstations
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In collaboration with Dionisios Vriniotis and Dakota Wares-Tani

 

Stellar Spectra, 2018

Icebreakers
HTO Park, Toronto

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Homespun Yarn: Hampstead, 2015

Hard Twist

Gladstone Hotel, Toronto