The humble handkerchief of today is considered little more than a utilitarian object of small worth, and often replaced by a disposable paper “tissue.” During the Renaissance period, however, the handkerchief represented a stylish symbol of personal prestige, denoting elegant manners if not aristocratic refinement. The handkerchief’s significance became further reinforced in many theatrical traditions. The revered Egyptian singer, Umm Kulthum, always held a signature handkerchief when performing onstage, while the tragedy of Shakespeare’s Othello hinges on his love-gift to Desdemona of a strawberry embroidered handkerchief woven with “magic in the web of it.”

In these elaborately configured painted squares, Rachid Koraïchi, makes reference to the hidden histories of emotional outpourings that attach to these intimate yet mute accessories. As inseparable companions kept close to the hearts of men and women alike, they become charmed tissues chronicling the transports of joy and sorrow and recording the passions of desire and despair experienced over the course of their owner’s entire life. These seven linked works operate as singular records embroidered with secret signs and hidden keys. Each evokes the faint scent of their owner’s individual perfume, while together they incorporate and encode numerological mysteries associated with the magical prime number 7 and its combinatory elements of 3 and 4.