Living in urban environments for nearly a decade, Taryn McCabe misses having a garden. She associates soil and plants with a sense of safety and belonging—something that can be hard to find amid the chaos of the city.

“I have always loved to garden,” McCabe said, smiling warmly as she held a blooming red plant. “I feel that when I am cultivating the soil and working directly with the earth that I am meditating and feeling like I belong.”

McCabe has found a way to rediscover this fulfillment through conceptual artwork. She has created a unique space in which the natural life of a garden exists within a domestic setting as a project for the Conceptual and Installation Arts (CIA) program at SF State.

McCabe’s garden-sculptures, along with the work of two other CIA artists, will be on display at the “Imperfect Machines” installation, the featured exhibit at The Art Gallery from April 24th to May 14th, located on the second floor of the Cesar Chavez Student Center.

The modern style of conceptual artwork is designed to put the viewer through an experience that is not limited to visual elements, but can also contain auditory and sensory aspects.

McCabe’s garden spaces hold a very personal meaning for her. She said that they evoke the feeling of warmth that she associates with her mother.

“I realized that this sense of love and compassion that my mother gives me is so much more than emotions. They are a feeling of home for me,” she said. “It is this home that I want to pursue in my art.”

Traveling is also a major source of artistic inspiration for McCabe.

She has traveled extensively throughout Europe, South America, and has lived in Northern Japan. She embarked with her friend on an epic bicycle journey across the United States from Pittsburgh, Pa., to the San Francisco Bay Area.

“We liked the idea of chasing the sun,” she said.

For the “Imperfect Machines,” McCabe’s works will be shown alongside CIA graduate student Eilish Cullen’s photographs from the outskirts of San Francisco and around Tiburon and Marin, especially where the water meets the land.

Concrete blocks piled up in the waters of Tiburon create a pattern of repetition in her main photograph; Cullen said these blocks were discarded from the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge.

She used synthetic vinyl to adhere these photographs to the wall, so they create a large visual landscape.

As she photographed these landscapes, she also recorded sounds of the environment to accompany the visuals.

“There are certain sounds that will catch my attention,” she said. “[Like how] there are rocks and water trickling down the stream sporadically. One of my favorite sounds is the sound of erosion along cliffs.”

Cullen, a Seattle native who came to San Francisco to expand her study of conceptual art, has also captured industrial sound in highly-trafficked areas of the city, such as the South of Market district.

Jeff Ray, a CIA graudate student at SF State, constructed a wooden sauna as an environment to immerse the viewer in a total sensory experience evoking a sense of meditation and safety.

As the sauna fills with hot steam, a video screen projects scenes of snow-capped mountains and other landscapes while atmospheric sounds fill the wooden structure.

“I am attempting to create an alternative safe healing space that evokes a sense of warmth and hearth-like atmosphere…a warming center,” he said.

This concept was inspired by his experience helping his mother battle cancer.

“There is a ritualistic cleansing, healing side to the piece,” he said.

Ray explained that the creation of the sauna was challenging, but had its rewards.

“It was a long, arduous process,” he said. “But with anything you put a lot of work in, I feel relieved and content with the results.”

He added that he was very happy with the interesting mix of art that will be displayed at this installation.

“I feel great,” he said. “I like how eclectic the artwork is for this show.”

The Art Gallery is located on the second level of the Cesar Chavez Student Center, its hours are Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and “Imperfect Machines” will be on display from April 24 through May 14.