It is not often that you get to see a plaster cast of a vagina hanging on a wall. However, at the recent art exhibition Work in Process, organized by the student group Residential Area Real Art (RARA), there were at least six. In addition to the linearly arranged assembly of vaginas on the wall, a plaster sculpture of a human body from the abdomen up with a vagina attached by wire lay near the center of the room.

“The vaginas are real casts of people,” sophomore co-curator of the exhibit and artist of the vagina piece Vanessa Gravenor said. “I guess the concept behind it was imagining a gesture that was really open and intimate and that was kind of out of the normal communication level in our society. I was imagining something that would take people off-guard, but then also the viewer would come into it and be empowered by the vulnerability that the figure was giving them.”

Though perhaps the most shocking and provocative of the pieces shown, the vaginas were only one highlight among a collection of various media displaying what drives the creative process.

“A lot of times people see art and say, ‘Okay that’s cool, maybe not a lot of work went into that’ or ‘I could do that myself,’ but what they don’t realize is there’s a ton of work that goes behind even the simplest things,” junior Gabi Messina, the other co-curator, explained. “So, a lot of these works are just like explorations on a topic, and they might not lead to anything in the end, but if nothing else that exploration is pretty cool in itself.”

The entire exhibit, featured in the Steinberg Hall gallery on Friday, Dec. 9, sought to answer the question “What is a Sketch?” and includes a diversity of mediums, such as sketches, lithography, sculptures and architectural models. Messina and Gravenor visited all the major and core classes in the art and architecture schools seeking pieces for the exhibit.

“It was basically a lot of badgering [to get the pieces],” Gravenor said. “We went to the majors and were like ‘Hey that is really cool,’ or we just went up to classmates and were like ‘I want that. Give it to me.’”

These pieces range from a corkboard with an assortment of scribbled note-cards and moss to a short video clip of the process behind animating a hog’s movements to a “visual conversation” book binding sketches and drawings from anonymous members of the Sam Fox Art School.

Work in Process is one of the first completely student-run exhibits, as well as the first RARA exhibit featured at both the art school and on main campus. Although the show was only on display in the Steinberg Hall gallery for one day, a selection of pieces can be seen in the DUC Millstone Visitor’s Center for the rest of the semester.