ART SPOT

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The artist:

THOMAS DAMBO

Thanks to Sue P for bringing him to my attention.

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About the artist:

Thomas Dambo is a Danish "recycle art activist" who is known for his installations of giant monumental wooden sculptures called trolls, made entirely out of recycled materials.

Although he is well known around the world for his large recycle sculptures and installations, he has also built and placed more than 3500 birdhouses made out of recycled materials and spread them in several cities over the world.

After high school Dambo began studying to become a carpenter, although he quickly became bored with the repetitive work. Searching for a different line of creativity, he applied at Kolding School of Designs and was accepted in 2005. During his early years at the design school, Thomas started to see great potential in all of the stuff that people threw out. He was especially intrigued by all the plywood that was thrown away daily by construction sites and one day when he came across a giant container filled with this, he got the idea for his first major street art project; “Happy City Birds”.

Thomas Dambo hides his giant wooden trolls around the world in wilderness and forests. By doing this, he hopes to lure people away from concrete cities and computer screens, into the wild and reconnect them with the natural world.

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Trolls:

A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human beings.

In later Scandinavian folklore, trolls became beings in their own right, where they live far from human habitation, are not Christianised, and are considered dangerous to human beings. Depending on the source, their appearance varies greatly; trolls may be ugly and slow-witted, or look and behave exactly like human beings, with no particularly grotesque characteristic about them.

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Gallery:

Trolls:

Birdhouses:

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