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— To Danish recycled materials artist Thomas Dambo, the phrase "talking trash" means something quite different than it does to most people.

Dambo, who is in Detroit Lakes this month to take on one of the biggest public art projects he has created to date, believes there is value to be found in many things that most people would discard as trash.

"Everything I make, I try to make out of something that has been (used for) something else," he said during a press event at Detroit Mountain Recreation Area on Thursday, May 16.

Though Dambo has been involved in other projects involving recycled art, his trolls are probably his biggest claim to fame. In fact, his work was even featured on "CBS This Morning" earlier this spring, and he has published a book called "Trash, Trolls and Treasure Hunts" about the first 100 trolls that he created around the world. Even the book itself is made from recycled materials, Dambo noted.

Copies of that book will be available for sale at an artist talk with Dambo that will be hosted by the Historic Holmes Theatre this Tuesday, May 21 at 7 p.m. During his talk, Dambo will be discussing the story behind his creation of nine different art pieces, including a half-dozen of his "recycled giants," at locations in the Detroit Lakes area.

"It's an exhibition made out of scraps," Dambo said, referring to the fact that just about every aspect of the sculptures will be made of recycled materials — mainly wood, though at least one will be made out of plastic.

Vicki Gerdes / Detroit Lakes Tribune

Some of the wood came from the white pine trees that were cut down to make room for the expansion of State Highway 34 last summer, Dambo noted, while the yellow plastic storage boxes that will be used for one of the sculptures came from Bismarck Tool and Die Manufacturing.

Some of the pieces in the project will be placed at locations in Fargo, Perham and Frazee, though the bulk of them will be installed in and around Detroit Lakes.

Dambo said that this will be his largest project to date, in terms of both geographic area and height — at least one of the trolls will reach a standing height of 36 feet when completed.

But it's not just their height that will make the Detroit Lakes trolls stand out, Dambo noted — they also have large hands, heads and feet.

"The head of a troll is about 6-8 feet in diameter," he said. "The largest foot I have is 9 feet (long)."

All of the sculptures will be interconnected by a central story, which Dambo described as a "fairy tale." The story will start with a central character, named Alexa, who is in the process of brewing a magical elixir that will, hopefully, cure humans of their "curse" — which is, in essence, the inability to see what they are doing to their environment.

That sculpture will serve as the starting point that will contain clues for locating the other trolls, he added. One of the trolls will be placed in a "super secret" location, with clues to help pinpoint that location being included as part of the other troll sculptures.

Contributed / Project 412

Dambo said that part of the reason why he originally chose trolls as his subject was because they were creatures steeped in Scandinavian folklore,

Work on constructing the trolls has already been underway for about a week, Dambo said, and will continue through mid-June. Local nonprofit Project 412 is the organization that is responsible for bringing Dambo and his crew of 20-odd artists to the Detroit Lakes community for this art installation, and he thanked them for their assistance in every aspect of the project, including the recruitment of volunteers.

"We needed to fill 472 time slots with volunteers," said Project 412 Executive Director Amy Stoller Stearns, "and we've filled them."

There are still a few slots available later in the schedule, she added, so those who would like to sign up to be a part of the troll-building project can still do so at

Those planning to attend Dambo's artist talk at the Holmes Theatre on Tuesday, May 21 are asked to RSVP via the Project 412 website.