An Interview with Artist Thomas Dambo

Imagine Exhibitions is working with recycle artist Thomas Dambo to develop an all-new touring exhibition featuring Dambo’s signature folklore-inspired troll sculptures built from reclaimed materials. The outdoor exhibition will fuse fairytales, whimsy, and incredible art installations to inspire visitors to explore climate change and other complex issues related to our relationship with the planet, nature, and animals.

But, who is Thomas Dambo, what is a ‘recycle artist,’ and why trolls? We recently sat down with Dambo to discuss his background, his process, and his message as an artist to help our clients get to know a bit more about the art that will be featured in this new outdoor traveling exhibition.

Read on to hear about how Dambo’s hippie schooling, ADHD, and Danish background inform his work; how recycling forces creativity; and what Nordic folktales, forests, trolls, and trash all have to do with one another.

How did you first get into art and making and building?

I’ve pretty much been doing it for as long as I can remember. My parents are pretty creative…they never became professional creatives and they probably wouldn’t say they were creative themselves, but they definitely raised me and my little brother creatively. So, if I wanted to watch a cartoon on TV or something, I would have to do a drawing from that cartoon. I also went to a school in the countryside that was very creative. I remember that each grade had their own little lot at this hippie school with a castle that you could build on. So, me as a 9-year-old would run around with a hammer and a saw and wood to build on our castle. And then we as fourth graders would stand on the roof of the castle and throw rotten apples at the 5th grader’s castle and stuff like that.

So, I grew up in a place where the limits were really widespread and the minds were really, really open and the possibilities were really, really big. So, that’s what shaped me. And at the same time, as I kid I had ADHD so I had a lot of energy that I needed to burn. But, because I went to this small hippie school, I think the teachers and my parents understood that I wasn’t a stupid kid, I was a really smart kid who just needed to be guided in the right direction.

You are best known for your giant Troll sculptures, but do you make other art?

I have written a lot of hip hop lyrics and I’ve created three or four different bands that I have played two or three hundred concerts with. Additionally, I’ve also traveled with a human beat box show, I’ve made a lot of music videos, and have done a lot of graphic design, graffiti and street art. And all of this, probably to the untrained ear, it is hard to understand “what is the similarity?,” but for me looking back in retrospect: I’ve been creating worlds. So, when I created a hip hop band, what I thought was interesting about it was: “What’s their logo? What are the characters of the band?” I would create all of the t-shirts and costumes for the whole band and come up with the names of all the alter egos for everybody, and I would decorate the tour bus using masking tape that I bought at the gas station. And that’s the same type of thing that I’ve been doing with the trolls—I like to invent this universe with all the different facets of what this recycled, sustainable, educational, troll fairy tale universe has. So, from having the whole team that travels around and builds them, to having the stories for each troll, to all the different characters of all of the trolls, to the fairy tale book, to the online map that you can dive into—it is all about building a universe. My assistant says, “What is hard about working for you is that you never stop, but that is also what makes it fun.” I’m always building and expanding and growing the worlds of my work.

You call yourself a recycle artist or a recycled art activist. What inspired you to focus your work on reclaimed materials, and why do you think conservation messages are important in today’s society?

Based on the way I grew up, the values that shaped me were really the hippie values of community, and taking care of the world, the people around you, each other, and animals.

So, I made a decision about 12 years ago that from now on, I would only make my art from recycled material after I did a big bird house project where I made thousands of bird houses out of recycled wood. I was known as the street art artist making birdhouses for a couple of years, and from that I decided all my art would be made from other people’s trash, because I wanted to educate people about all the wonderful things you can make from waste. In that process, my stories started then to be a lot about protecting nature and the forests.

I hope to help people remember that you can build everything out of anything. It is just a shame if you build something out of the same thing every time! Making things out of the same materials over and over again isn’t actually easier for the builder—it is the capitalistic way of the world that has forced us into thinking it is easier. It is only easier for the people selling the product for it to be made from the same materials every time. I want to remind people that they can experiment and build the world in new ways.

What drew you to the concept of giant Trolls in the first place?

I always like to do my projects in the forest and to go into the forest myself and of course we all know the importance of the forest and the trees. In Nordic mythology, the trolls live in the forest and there is this idea that plants can grow on the trolls or the trolls can be so old that they can be made of nature like stone and bark and wood and trees—and that is why you can’t really see them if you look too fast, but if you look a little bit closer you might spy one. So, the connection for me was that I can make a big sculpture that is made of the forest itself (being made of recycled wood) but the story is also that the sculpture is taking care of the forest, because in the stories the trolls are protecting the forest. I just think that is such a beautiful, 360-degree process: that we cut down all of the forests to create all of these things that we throw out again…and then I take that trash and give it new life protecting the forest.

Your Trolls are more along the lines of those from Norse mythology than they are like the colorful cartoons in Trolls World Tour. How did your background growing up in Denmark influence that aesthetic for you?

Ever since I was a kid—before I started to make my own worlds—I liked to dive into other worlds that you could read or see or hear from different authors. A lot of Danish stories have trolls and are Nordic themed with Vikings and trolls and different characters from the old Nordic mythology and Nordic folklores, so I think those are the normal characters for me to draw into my universe since that is what I grew up with.

I also believe if you make anything in nature, you should do it with respect for the way nature works and the way nature looks. Because of that, I try not spray my sculptures with red plastic paint or slap concrete all over the place. This way, if I leave my sculpture in the forest and no one ever came to clean it up, it is just made of wood and nails that will rust and it will disappear and go back to the earth. Also aesthetically, I think people don’t find it as intrusive if you find something made of wood in nature than if you find something made of plastic or concrete. Because it feels like it is at home.

How many trolls have you built?

With the project we are working on right now, I believe that will bring us to 85.

I have heard that you like to choose to put your sculptures in places that inspire people to discover a new location or to explore the nature of their own community, and that they become immensely popular, drawing locals and visitors alike to new locations. Can you tell me about how you choose where to put your art, and why?

A theme that exists in my art is: treasure hunt or exploration. I like to go on urban exploration myself—I like to visit graffiti all over the world and hunt down all the streets to find local tags and stickers and things like that, which is also a sort of treasure hunt. I’ve done art treasure hunts in different ways with bird houses and posters and stickers and things like that. And now, I do it with the troll sculptures: make something that is hidden in plain sight, which makes people look around the corner and beneath the sewer caps—it makes people explore where they live a little bit more. The mentality of exploration has given me so many good experiences throughout my life and I believe that the best experience doesn’t have to be one where you go onto an airplane and fly for eight hours to find something new. Often you can find it so close to where you sleep, you won’t believe it! I think art can be a good tool to give people some of those experiences that draw them out to find something beautiful just around the corner. Many people forget this mentality when they grow old or they grow roots, and that’s when people get bored and they have to travel so far and I want to inspire people to become explorers of the world around them right now.

What is the biggest challenge with working with trash to create recycled art?

Well, the obvious problem—which is also the biggest benefit—is that you never know what you’ll find. It is hard to make a recipe if you don’t know which ingredients you can get your hands on. So, that means you have to be flexible. That could be the worst thing—but if you have an open mind, it can be the best thing because it challenges you every time. It never makes the dull, boring, same stew that you’ve made 150 times!

What are your goals for the traveling exhibition that you are developing with Imagine Exhibitions? What can potential visitors expect to see?

I hope that I can create something that seems like it invades the space and becomes a part of the space, rather than just sitting on top of the space. And I hope that it can be something that makes people see the space in a new way, because they have to explore and investigate the space. And I hope that the size of my sculptures can help people see their own size in a different way. Through the story, I hope to remind people that even though we are really small, we also mean a lot in the big picture of the world. The big trolls are here to remind the little people that we have a big responsibility.

Contact us today to discuss hosting the all-new Thomas Dambo Trolls exhibition, or to commission a permanent or semi-permanent sculpture from Dambo.