Banksy’s artwork showing two people embracing while secretly checking their mobile phones is titled Mobile Lovers.
The image depicts a couple in an apparent romantic embrace, but both figures are looking down at phones held behind the other person’s back. The composition turns a familiar gesture of intimacy into a comment on distracted relationships and the way digital devices compete with physical presence.
Mobile Lovers appeared on a wall near Bristol’s Broad Plain in 2014. The work quickly attracted public attention, and the local youth club associated with the building helped negotiate its removal and sale. Proceeds were used to support the club, while the original wall painting was preserved through a transfer process.
The title is straightforward but can be confused with other Banksy works about modern communication. Its central idea is not a telephone conversation or a single person using a device; it is the contrast between an embrace and simultaneous private phone checking.