Trolls, the menacing otherworldly beings of folklore, are gaining a foothold across America. They haven’t gobbled anybody up yet, but they still hope to shake everyone who meets them to their core and deliver a new message: Trash is treasure. “It’s an advertising campaign for trash,” quips Thomas Dambo, the Dr. Frankenstein to over 150 troll sculptures around the world. “I want trash to be the fashion, I want it to be cool, because if it was cool then we would be less wasteful.”
The Danish self-described “garbage artist” has been crafting giant trolls from refuse – mainly old wood pallets – for about a decade. The 5-ton sculptures haunt over a dozen countries and U.S. states. He completed his most ambitious troll installation – five trolls plus other giant sculptures – in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, in June. Whimsical names, lighthearted stories and the intricate craftsmanship involved in making the trolls give creatures like Ronny Funny Face a broad appeal. But beyond enjoying the sight of them, Dambo hopes viewers will also note how the trolls were made from disregarded materials and appreciate the precious environments they inhabit, from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to forests near the demilitarized zone in South Korea.
“It’s a cute little fairy tale about a troll but if you look deeper, it’s a story about humans and recycling and how we care for the world,” said the 44-year-old. “I don’t want to just make entertainment. I want to make ‘edu-tainment.’” Dambo spoke to USA TODAY on video from his studio outside Copenhagen, where he directs dozens of employees in designing the cute-as-a-button monsters. His so-called customers are people from around the world who want him and his merry band to transform garbage into something mystical. Politicians haven’t passed any “Thomas Dambo laws” protecting the environment, the Dane jokes. But he sees proof of his concept in the life he’s built on garbage and trusts some of the millions encountering his work leave with a new sense of resolve.
Where are the trolls?
Ronny Funny Face, Barefoot Frida and Jacob Everear are among the latest Dambo creations. The artist, his crew and dozens of volunteers built and installed them along with several other sculptures in Northern Minnesota in June.
Project 412, a Detroit Lakes nonprofit aiming to boost the town’s cultural cache, commissioned the project.
“Public art adds to a community in a way that’s equally as important as having a good library or having a great downtown. All of those are gems in the necklace that make a community shine,” said Amy Stearns, the nonprofit’s executive director. The name 412 is a reference to all of the lakes in the area.
The group took to his work because of its awesome appearance and sustainability ethos.
“He’s shining a light on how important it is for us to care for our world, our natural resources,” Stearn said. “Public art can move the needle.”
Project 412 also hopes the giant trolls – one stands 40 feet tall – will draw visitors to small town Minnesota.
The creatures have had an outsize impact on the other places they’ve landed.
Gretchen Osther, CEO and President of the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, said visits to the Boothbay Harbor destination have more than tripled since Dambo installed trolls in 2021.
The number of visitors shot up from 100,000 in 2019 to 340,000 today. Osther said the increase is partly because tourism has grown in Maine generally, but also because of the trolls’ ability to reach new audiences.
The Maine institution began planning to bring in Dambo’s work in 2019 after seeing the impact it had on botanical gardens in Kentucky and Illinois, where leadership told her the trolls boosted visitors tremendously and attendance remained high even after they were dismantled.
