Past, Present, Future

Written By Helen Hamblin

Week 17, 2018 → 2026

We think the past is behind us.

It isn’t.

It changes form.

I created this piece in April 2018, during the first Trump administration. Even then, the work wasn’t only about the present moment. It was about the relationship between past, present, and future — and the systems of power that continue repeating themselves across time.

The piece connected stories that, on the surface, appeared separate:

racial terror
immigration
women’s bodies
religious control
historical memory

Different eras. Different headlines. But the same underlying logic reappearing.

At the center of the piece was The Handmaid’s Tale.

Not as fantasy.

As warning.

Because fiction doesn’t predict the future. It exposes what is already in motion.

In 2026, many of the same themes surrounding this piece are resurfacing again in public life:

  • battles over reproductive control

  • declining reproductive freedom

  • attempts to reshape or soften historical truth

  • institutions deciding which versions of history deserve to remain visible

  • elite systems protected from accountability

The headlines change.

The structure underneath them often does not.

What becomes dangerous is not only the repetition itself, but how quickly repetition becomes normalized.

First, history is edited.

Then narratives are managed.

Then people slowly lose a shared understanding of what is true.

This is what the piece was wrestling with in 2018.

And it is still the question now:

If we can recognize patterns repeating in real time, what responsibility comes with seeing them?

Helen Hamblin
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Crossed Lines