A sheet of broken glass is mounted atop a framed photo, depicting a windowpane fractured along the same lines. The title refers to the eponymous 1921 movie star-ring Charlie Chaplin, the first feature film where Charlot (Charlie + Pierrot) the clown, made his appearance. In a famous scene, the Kid and the Tramp perform a well-rehearsed routine: the boy smashes a window with a stone and runs away, while Charlot pretends to turn up by chance with a brand new sheet of glass, ready to fix the damage done and to make some money. As usual, Chaplin is as funny and sweet as he is defiant and punk.
In ‘The Kid’, Schlesinger puts himself in the position of playing both characters from Chaplin’s movie: he breaks the window and he introduces himself as the res-cuer who fixes it. Besides cashing in on the situation, the artist executes a double pirouette: the items he exhibits are already broken, but twice as precious because of their arrested fragmentation and vulnerability. Turned into artefact, the damage is frozen into a permanent state which cannot evolve any further. Then it becomes reassuring rather than dangerous.