ISHØJ, Denmark (AP) — For more than a decade, Danish recycling artist Thomas Dambo has scattered wooden troll sculptures around the world. He has created almost 200 in 19 countries.Now the poet and former hip-hop artist is bringing a collection of fairy tale-inspired creations in from the cold for his first museum exhibit.“The Garbage Man,” at the Arken Museum of Contemporary Art on the outskirts of Copenhagen, tells the story of a group of mischievous trolls who secretly move into the museum, take it over and redesign it.“They build and leave a giant human made of trash … as a lesson for the humans to behave better and don’t put their trash where everybody else lives,” Dambo said at his studio near the Danish capital.The 46-year-old artist started spreading his trolls back in 2014, when he built two sculptures for a Danish music festival.
Two years later, he hid six giant trolls in wooded areas around Copenhagen. The project went viral, drawing millions of viewers online.“I was like, if I tell a story that combines them all, then when I’ve done this (for) 10 years, I will probably have made over 100 sculptures and … I have made the world into my stage,” he said.
Twelve years on, Dambo has made almost 200. The artist and his team build about 25 new trolls annually. “Long Leif,” the tallest at 13 meters (43 feet) high, stands in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.
