"The Ghosts of the Past are Present" presents a crowd of protagonists who do not seem to interact with each other but rather with the forces of nature that hold them hostage. The scene is ambiguous. It is uncertain if the moment is fictional or real, performed or an embodied feeling. It is also inconclusive if the figures are multiples of the same person or a crowd of different bodies, naked, exposed, and vulnerable. The hordes of bodies are trapped behind a cage of stainless steel, seemingly captured within their own tale. The garments worn by the figures are signifiers of heavy-duty work, matching the color of their skin, suggesting that these tropes are internalized within their beings. The unnatural color of the bodies objectifies them. They are not human, or not what others associate with being human. The gestus of the figures takes on the physical embodiment of social commentary. Their bodies have absorbed the toxicity of their environment, turning them into the other. The distortion of the figures underlines the sense of otherness. The transformation is ongoing, and the image implies the interaction between a stronger, more forceful power and a weaker, perhaps less autonomous entity.