04/07/2013

《不是區旗》 This is not a flag

Photograph, Inkjet print, 640 x 960 mm, 2013

Flower, Inkjet print, 640 x 960 mm, 2013

Wax, Wax on paper, 640 x 960 mm, 2013



2013年,一名香港巿民因焚燒和塗中華人民共和國國旗及香港特別行政區區旗被裁判法院裁定侮辱國旗、區旗罪成。
國旗,如果以美國哲學家皮爾斯(C. S. Peirce)的「符號學」(Semiotics)模式去分類,應該是屬於「記號」(Symbol)一類。皮爾斯認為「符號」(Sign)可分為三類,而每一類符號與其指涉對象之間,有著不同的關係。
「肖像」(Icon)類,形似或聲似其指涉對象,例如相片就是肖象的一種。「指標」(Index)類與其指涉的對象有物理上或空間上的因果關係,就如煙是火的指標。而「記號」(Symbol)類符號與其指涉之事物,既不相似也無直接關係,只是某特定文化裡約定俗成的規則,國旗如是。


In 2013, a Hong Kong citizen found guilty in The Magistrates' Court for burning both the national flag of the People's Republic of China and the regional flag of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
National flag, in the terms of the American philosopher C.S. Peirce’s semiotics model, is a kind of Symbol. Peirce classified sign into three categories: Icon, Index and Symbol. Each of the categorized sign and its signified object has different layers of linkage.
In an Icon, the sign looks or sounds like the object that it refers. Photograph is an Icon. In an Index, there is a direct connection either physical or spatial, between the sign and its object, like smoke is the index of fire. And in a Symbol, its connection with its object is a matter of convention, agreement or rule. Example, flags.