alt0400-claire

4:00 PM

Claire Corich Gathers the Altar Godesses

words by Marcy Swenson

Claire Corich, one of the masterminds behind "Gateway Systems," who have been bringing underground parties and rituals to the San Francisco Bay Area and dimensions beyond for two and a half years, is coordinating the Altar Room for the 9th Annual Digital Be-In. She's drawing on her vast experience in creating meaningful and beautiful spaces, but tailoring her work to the needs of a real-time video broadcast:

“The broadcast doesn't change how I build an altar, but it will affect how I display all of the objects. Lighting effects and spacing of objects have to be tailored to allow people viewing the altars over the internet to have the same reaction to the symbols that someone would in person. Unlike an in-person situation, where people can change their perspective, or handle the objects, things can't be too close together or too jumbled."

Claire's work has left lasting effects on Bay Area partygoers; by allowing participants to interact with the altar by trading an item in their pocket for one on the altar, and by bringing many of the same objects to different events, she creates a consistency over time, and a sense of belonging for people.

The first altar Claire created for an event displayed a small bowl of semi-precious stones. One female at the party came to Claire: she had traded a regular stone from the park she had in her pocket for one of the particularly beautiful pieces of rose quartz in the bowl. The woman said that she really needed the rose quartz right now. The woman associated the openness she felt at the event to the ability to make a trade: what she had with her, for what she feel she needed. Claire told her to use the stone, but please not to lose it. A year later, the woman returned to a subsequent Gateway event: this time, she exchanged the rose quartz for the stone from the park (still in the bowl after a year's time), saying that her original stone was more important to her now.

Claire hopes that people will learn from experiencing her work:

"To know that people interact with the altar, that they can take a part of it, and leave something is very special Ð a good feeling. The visual display of symbols has such an impact on people's minds; I want people to reach for symbolism with beauty and love, to let that part of their mind be free.

To have your own personal altar is a way of interacting with your inner self. It can be transformative. I really hope that this inspires people to do this for themselves. It is a way of reaching out to other people and sharing what is precious."

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Editors note:

Producer Michael Gosney and I bumped into Claire Corich about two hours into the party. "Your altar-room project is a real hit," said Gosney. "You must be feeling great about it."

"I'm just beginning to feel relaxed now," replied Corich. "You know, about an hour into the process I looked around at these women creating their altars, it's really heavy, that process, and I became just overwhelmed. You know this is the first time that these altars have been created together in one room, and it's not a light thing. I felt pretty overwhelmed for about an hour, trying to assimilate what I've done. Now I'm fine. It is an incredible thing, isn't it."

"Yeah," says Gosney. "You ought to be proud of it, you know. It's the jewel of the Be-In . . ."