An artist who recreated an anti-war protest camp and another who builds brightly coloured reproductions of places of worship are on the short list for the 2007 Turner Prize.

The Turner Prize, given by the U.K.'s Tate galleries, is a controversial modern art prize that in the past has gone to an image of the Madonna made out of dung and a bare white room with a light that goes on and off.

But this year, the short list reflects a turn to politicial themes.

Artist Mark Wallinger built a replica of an anti-war campaigner Brian Haw's camp outside the U.K. Parliament, including his banners and protest signs, for a solo exhibition at Tate Britain.

Nathan Coley was nominated for his public installation Camouflage Church in Spain and for his work Jerusalem Syndrome, which depicts three of the world's holiest sites in Jerusalem.

Coley is also famous for reconstructing the trial courtroom after the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, which killed 259 people on board a Pan Am flight to New York.

Ugandan-born photographer and videographer Zarina Bhimji is nominated for her photos of life in Uganda, where she was exiled under Idi Amin.

The last nominee is Mike Nelson, whose work in the past year has included Amnesian Shrine or Double coop displacement, which features a structure made of wood and chicken wire.

It is a second nomination for both Nelson and Wallinger.

"Political issues figure prominently in all their work," Christoph Grunenberg, director of Tate Liverpool and chairman of the prize jury, said in an interview with BBC.

"They explore the lessons and legacies of history and the representation of collective and personal memory."

The shortlisted artists will take part in a group exhibition at Tate Liverpool this autumn. It is the first time the Turner Prize show has been held outside of London.

The £25,000 ($55,000 Cdn) prize will be presented on Dec. 3, just before Liverpool takes on the title European Capital of Culture in 2008.

Last year's winner was German abstract painter Tomma Abts.