“The effects of the climate crisis show that nature in the 21st century is no longer ‘natural,’ but is instead affected in every way by human actions.” This statement from C/O Berlin, a photography and visual media exhibition space in the German capital, underpins the 2027 edition of its After Nature Prize. The prestigious annual award recognises artists whose practices consider the changing relationship between humans and the organic world. Each year, two recipients receive €40,000 to develop new research-intensive projects, alongside the opportunity to present their work in an exhibition and accompanying publication. Jamilah Sabur (b. 1987) and Yuyan Wang (b. 1989) are this year’s honourees.
Sabur’s project explores the connections between Jamaica and Scotland. It begins with the story of the artist’s grandfather, who sprayed chemicals for the Tate & Lyle Frome Sugar Factory to combat malaria in the mid-20th century. Sabur uses these anti-disease operations, initially organised by the British military and later by international health programmes, as the springboard for an investigation into the effects of medicine, the sugar industry and environmental factors on the Jamaican workers’ health. She is also interested in the advent of so-called tropical medicine in Scotland. Using historical printing processes such as platinum palladium and gum bichromate, whose soft, painterly effects were once considered imprecise for scientific purposes, Sabur offers a new perspective on the subject. As jury member Jelena Stojković (senior lecturer, School of Arts, Oxford Brookes University) comments, Sabur’s project “seeks to decolonise the history of scientific progress,” positioning photography as “a chief vehicle in this effort.”
Then there’s Wang, a filmmaker and video artist who turns attention to an artificial plant production centre in southern China, where durable and deceptively realistic leaves, flowers and trees are created for use as decoration in shopping malls, offices and amusement parks all over the world. Wang follows the full process of how these objects are made – from their origins as fossil-based resources, which become plastic and then the finished merchandise. She asks: how is our understanding of nature changing as real flora is increasingly being replaced by industrially fabricated replicas? In Wang’s video installation, documentary footage of the manufacturing process is combined with fictional moments. The artist focuses on the repetitive hand movements of workers, creating a sequence where the boundaries between body, material and machine become blurred. This results in a haunting vision of a landscape that no longer grows but is produced, reproduced, sold, and most likely, thrown into landfill. Juror Ben Livne Weitzman (independent curator for the Crespo Foundation) describes this as an “intriguing fictional, almost science-fictional space where reality and artifice, the natural and the fake, and simulacra and world-building intersect.”
The two artists will present their new work in a double exhibition at C/O Berlin opening in September 2027. Though working across different mediums and histories, Sabur and Wang share an interest in how industry has transformed our relationship with the living world, and the consequences of these interventions for communities, ecosystems and future generations. Their projects trace these effects on both a global and personal scale, revealing the enduring legacies of colonial medicine and global trade on the way we engage with nature. It will be exciting to see how these ideas develop over the next 12 months.
The After Nature . Ulrike Crespo Photography Prize 27 is at C/O Berlin from September 2027 to January 2028.
Words: Eleanor Sutherland
Image Credits:
1. County of Cornwall, 2026 © Jamilah Sabur
2. Research documentation, Artificial plant factory, Southern China, video still, 2026 © Yuyan Wang
4. Giemsa-stained blood film of Plasmodium falciparum, 2026 © Jamilah Sabur
5. Research documentation, Artificial plant factory, Southern China, video still, 2026 © Yuyan Wang
