When it comes to Thomas Dambo’s works of art, it’s almost all about trolls.
The Danish artist has created 159 troll sculptures in 20 countries over the last 11 years. Dambo’s latest work is a 24-foot-tall work that’s the centerpiece of the brand-new Firefly Grove Park (1900 N. 116th St.) on Wauwatosa’s west side.
Dambo named the troll Mama Rosa, to rhyme with Wauwatosa, of course.
Dambo’s trolls have become a global sensation over the past decade. Typically made from locally sourced recycled materials, they have attracted millions of visitors to more than 100 sites across the world due to their whimsical appeal, eco-conscious wood construction, twiggy hair, expressive faces and sheer size.
“The trolls have become my big hit as an artist. They’re pushing all the other things out,” Dambo said in an interview with Milwaukee Magazine as he oversaw work on the project on a recent bright, sunny morning.
He likened his situation to that of a musician whose popularity is boosted by a must-listen-to song. “Everybody wants to hear me play the hit song. It’s hard for me to get to play any of the other songs,” Dambo said. “But I do try to sneak some of the other projects in once in a while.”
Tell us who you’d pick to be a Betty this year!
Dambo, who permanently resides outside the Danish capital of Copenhagen, and his dedicated team began working on the Wauwatosa troll sculpture in early May. “It takes a thousand hours to build a troll,” he said.
Dambo, who temporarily relocated to the Wauwatosa area for the project, has a team from Denmark, and other countries, and more than 100 local volunteers who spent most of May carrying out the intense work, not only on the troll sculpture but in Firefly Grove Park, as well.
The troll is made primarily of wood, much of it sourced from trees removed from Wauwatosa’s public parks and spaces that Dambo said he discovered in the city’s “boneyard.”
“I found all these trees. Trees that fall in storms or that have elm disease or are too old and in danger of falling into somebody’s house or building,” Dambo said. “The city goes and cuts down the trees or removes fallen ones. All those huge logs and the city just woodchips them. I said can we just save some of the hardwood, mill it and use it for building the troll.”
The wood used to make the troll primarily came from oak, elm and ash trees that had stood throughout Wauwatosa. “It came right from the residential streets of Wauwatosa,” Dambo said.
The Wauwatosa Tourism Commission and the city of Wauwatosa officially unveiled Dambo’s giant troll sculpture on Wednesday. The event also marked the official opening of the park, a new public space located near North 116th Street and Gilbert Avenue.
Dambo said the city of Wauwatosa contacted him to gauge his interest in doing what would be his first project in Wisconsin.
“I’m so fortunate that people from all over the world reach out to me,” he said. “Wauwatosa sounded like a cool place and I have a mission to put one in each state. If it’s a new state, I’m all ears.”
Dambo traveled to Wauwatosa last year while in the midst of creating six trolls, including Dambo’s largest to date at 36 feet from head to toe, and three other sculptures in and around Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. Most of the trolls in Minnesota are in obscure spots and require a hike into the woods to see them, unlike the Wauwatosa troll sculpture, which is the main attraction in an easily accessible public park.
“I flew over here and I had a meeting,” Dambo said. “Then I always ask: ‘What’s in your trash can?’ Show me what you’ve got because I’m the world’s best garbage artist. That’s my thing. I’m educating the world about the value of our trash. Trash can be our solution rather than our downfall. We’re drowning in our own success and we’re so super wasteful.”
Dambo’s other troll projects this year have taken him to Solvang, California, and Huntsville, Alabama.
Dambo is a self-described activist, but don’t call him an environmentalist.
“I try to not use that word because it’s such a big word that covers so many different things,” he said. “It’s also sadly been weaponized in the political spectrum so I try to have my focus on recycling. That’s what I’m really good at and passionate about. Because almost anybody can agree that it’s smart to be resourceful and not waste. Just like how our grandparents told us to eat all our food.”
Although Dambo’s art can playful and fun, there’s also a seriousness to his work and message he wants to deliver. He’s convinced that the world is “drowning in trash” while running out of natural resources. In 2011, he quit his job to become an artist and promote a mission to “waste no more.”
“Today, I spend my life showing the world that beautiful things can be made out of trash,” Dembo writes on his website. “I give new life to discarded materials by turning them into large-scale artworks.”
In addition to trolls, Dambo also creates plastic works and birdhouses and what he describes as “Happy Wall” exhibitions, interactive installations that allow people to write and draw together on a large scale in a public space simply by flipping colored pieces of wood.
“All these projects are realized using hundreds of tons of recycled materials, working in and with local communities, who are co-creators of the art that I make because the mission I follow needs the involvement of everybody,” writes Dambo, who also works as a speaker and hosts occasional workshops to teach participants how to reuse and “upcycle.”
Each of Dambo’s trolls has a central mission as well and their own unique story. Recycled materials are incorporated into all of his trolls.
“The trolls are all different,” Dambo said. “We did one with a recycled canopy that then became a big tent that the troll is hiding under.
Dambo began to focus on troll sculptures in 2014, with projects in his Denmark homeland. The first in North America came that same year with a troll known as Hector the Protector on the Puerto Rican Island of Culebra. His initial project in the United States was a year later in Live Oaks, Florida, with a troll named Snorra of Suwannee.
Dembo, who said he once was a rapper, pens a poem for each troll.
“The trolls are protecting the plants and nature and talking for the plants and nature because they see themselves as protectors of the natural world against the enemy – the humans,” Dambo explained. “And often they don’t completely understand the humans.”
Mama Rosa, as Dambo sees it, is focused on the illuminated flowers she has picked, flowers created from discarded light fixtures that had stood in Wauwatosa’s village area.
“All these light fixtures were built to last 1,000 years and they were up on the street in this city until they decided they needed new ones,” Dambo said. “I saw them and then I had an idea for a sculpture. I explained my idea that the troll was picking flowers and wondered about these flowers that glow at night.”
Other discarded light fixtures have found new life along the trail that traverses the park. “I said why don’t we put those in the park instead of buying new ones,” Dambo explained. “That’s my mission.”
The light fixture flowers have Mama Rosa thinking that humans have used black magic to cast a spell on them, since they glow at night.
Here’s Dambo’s poem about Mama Rosa and the illuminated flowers:
Something’s funny with these flowers.
Some have special needs and powers
There’s no roots beneath these flowers
Rain won’t rain upon these flowers
Something’s funny with these flowers
They come from nothing in an hour
There’s no honeybees
These flowers have no honey in these flowers
Something’s funny with these flowers
Staying all summer, won’t go sour
When the sun’s asleep these flowers glow
I wonder how these flowers grow
A plaque with the poem engraved on it has been adhered to a decorative rock near the troll sculpture.
Dambo’s Mama Rosa troll sculpture was commissioned last year by the Wauwatosa Tourism Commission.
“We are thrilled to bring Thomas Dambo’s incredible artistry to Wauwatosa,” said Beth Gleesing, Tourism Specialist for the city. “His giant troll sculpture will not only enhance our new park but also position Wauwatosa as a vibrant arts destination.”
Dambo’s trolls have become worldwide sensations, with visitors flocking to sites around the world to catch a glimpse. The popularity of his work is such that it even generated considerable controversy in the Colorado mountain town of Breckenridge.
A troll dubbed Isak Heartstone became such an attraction that some townspeople revolted and demanded its removal. So many people flocked to Breckenridge that it forced the removal of the art installation over safety reasons and neighbors’ concerns about overcrowding and noise. A year later, Isak Heartstone was brought back to life in a slightly different form at a new forested and more isolated location.
What’s next for Dambo, in terms of upcoming projects?
“I just got an email from the architectural company that is remodeling the national stadium in Denmark and they asked me if I could do something with 25,000 plastic seats,” Dambo said. “That sounds cool. I try to keep an open mind and do other stuff but the trolls are my big hit and I’m also super good at them and I have a whole team that is really good at helping me.”
In addition to Dambo’s work, Firefly Grove Park includes five benches designed and created by local artists. Other recent Wauwatosa art initiatives have included murals along North Avenue and ART 64, touted as the nation’s largest live painting competition, held each June.
Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, Wisconsin Department of Tourism Secretary Anne Sayers, Wauwatosa Mayor Dennis McBride, and other elected officials were expected to join Dambo in a ribbon-cutting for the troll on Wednesday morning, followed by a public celebration from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Dambo has a simple hope for what he’d like visitors to the park to get from his troll sculpture.
“I hope they get a smile and a sense of wonder and also think did he really build all that just out of things that he found here,” Dambo said, flashing a broad smile.
