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| "Mobile Lovers" by Banksy |
At a glimpse, one would see this grafitti as a sweet couple embracing lovingly. At a closer look, one would then notice something that contradicts the initial impression of the artwork; the mobile phones they are both holding.
Of course, technology has played a huge role in all of our lives. It has led to new inventions, innovations, and offered us new modes of life. It has basically transformed our lives into something so different from the past, that we never thought would be happening today. It has made our lives easier, more convenient; better.
However, the time has come; technology is now taking over our lives, way too much, that our good old life styles are beginning to fade, more and more everyday...and this graffiti, is a great representation of what is happening to the human population.
Despite the woman and the man embracing, their hands are holding their own, individual mobile phones. They might look like they're looking at each other, but instead, what they are focusing on are actually their phones, shining bright into their faces. A satirical use of colors is seen where the bright white light is contrasting the rest of the image's dark color. This use of monochrome colors represents the phones as the only objects both people are focusing on, as if their phones are the most important things in their life. This shows how people have changed from before, from the influence of mass media and technology. Because you can basically do almost anything on phones as of the present day, people become overly attached to their phones, leading to addiction. As a result, their engagement in real social lives are deteriorating. People spend less time in the real world, with real people, with loved ones, and move into the online world, spending more time with people online.
Apart from the artwork itself, the name "Mobile lovers" also conveys a significant meaning. Apart from the part of the name "mobile" which is shortened from "mobile phones," it is also used to refer to the meaning of "mobile" which means able to be moved easily or freely. In a sense, this meaning could be used to represent the unstable relationship between the man and woman, as they do not seem to care for each other as much as they would without their phones. Phones are thus representative of a barrier which stops people from having the lives they used to have in the past, where "too smart" phones did not exist.
So, why is Banksy doing all this? Why did he create such an artwork? What message is he trying to portray to us? Well, it is rather simple. To the target audience of modern people, once they have seen this artwork, they would probably get a sudden realization of what is happening to themselves, the people around them, and the world. Through new technology, people have been blinded by such amazing revolutionary features of the phone that they have seemed to neglect a large portion of their real lives, activities, and most importantly, relationships between other people in the real world. This powerful artwork also reflects the common situation between many families and groups of friends. For instance, when having dinner, everyone would be using their phones, socializing with "online people" and not socializing with "real people." If this is the case, then why even have dinner together? Well, it has been happening so often that people do not realize it anymore, and this is exactly why Banksy has created this simple, yet meaningful grafitti artwork...who would've known such a simple image would be carrying so much meaning?
