Thomas Dambo is one of the most prominent recycle artists in the world.
His work focuses on the relationship between human beings, their environment and waste. Dambo challenges us to rethink how we view trash in a consumerism culture. Every day the world generates at least 3.5 million tons of plastic and other solid waste. According to a report from the World Bank, this is expected to rise by 75% by 2050 unless drastic measures are taken.
Hailing from Copenhagen Denmark, this artist uses raw materials that are otherwise being thrown away and gives them a second life. He has created amazing works with a variety of materials – wooden trolls up to five metres tall, huge sculptures made from plastic and even beautiful forests made from trash!
We sat down with Thomas to talk sustainability, environmental activism, art and why he does what he does.
You’ve been called the most prominent recycle artist in the world. You’ve completed 54 giant trolls as well as many other projects. Can you describe how it feels when you finish a piece and see people interact with it?
Thomas Dambo: I’ve always liked to climb around on art myself since I was a really little kid and I’ve always been told that you’re not allowed to because it might break if you touch it! I like it when I see people climbing on things – in many ways I don’t really see myself as an artist, I just feel like a big kid that’s playing and making things and other people call it art which is okay with me of course. For me I’m just doing what I’ve loved to do my whole life – I’ve been a part of the street art, graffiti and hip-hop community my whole life and that’s why people put me in this box but it’s completely fine with me!
““I think it’s really dangerous for our natural world if everybody just lives inside the internet because if all of people’s time is spent there, it will be hard for them to understand why they need to protect nature because they’re just never there.””
— Thomas Dambo
Tell us about the trolls. What was your inspiration for them and what can they teach people?
So I’ve just finished troll number 54 and now they are like my big commercial hit. I also work across a lot of other mediums which is why people think I’m an interesting recycle artist because I don’t just work with plastic or bicycle tyres or old tape or whatever it might be. I’ve really experimented on a big scale with many different types of trash. Right now I’m having a lot of success with the trolls which I’ve only made in the last five years. What I try to do with the trolls is to make sculptures that seem alive by putting them in nature and having them interact with their surroundings. Many of them are in wild nature because for me they represent the animals, the nature and the natural elements of the world. I’m using my background as a rapper to write lyrics, fairy tales and rhyming stories about the trolls. The most recent one I put out is called “The Seven Trolls and the Magical Tower”. It’s about seven trolls who live in a forest and they have a conflict with the small people who live around the forest because the small people are bringing down the forest where the trolls live.
I finished a new chapter in China and another in Denmark – then I was in Miami. For me the trolls represent nature and telling stories about the conflict of nature, and human beings being the biggest threat towards nature. At the same time, we can’t live without nature. This ties into my message of recycling and why we should recycle and take care of the world. Because of that I think it’s nice to make art in nature because it will encourage people to go out and see, touch, feel and spend time in nature more and maybe care more. I think it’s really dangerous for our natural world if everybody just lives inside the internet because if all of people’s time is spent there, it will be hard for them to understand why they need to protect nature because they’re just never there. I use a lot of the same techniques from street art before I began to do this type of art – by making the trolls interact with their environment, the whole forest becomes a part of the art work that I am making.
