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The Kid Should See This

Thomas Dambo’s Giant Scrap Wood Forest Trolls

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In 2019, Danish artist Thomas Dambo traveled to Kentucky’s Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest to build three of his recycled scrap wood trolls. The forest giants, Mama Loumari with her children Little Nis and Little Elina, were inspired by the arboretum’s landscape. The Bernheim and Dambo are aligned in their mission to promote sustainability and to encourage more experiences in nature.

I hope that with my family or a young couple or whoever will come and see the project, I hope they will take away from it that it’s worth to leave your screen or your house and go out and experience nature.

And I hope that they will remember that nature is sacred and beautiful and that you can build big and amazing things from trash and ultimately remember to take care of the world we are all sharing.

Find the installation on Dambo’s TrollMap.

bernheim forest giants
In the video below, Leo the Enlightened meditates in a beautiful, secret spot in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Dambo and his team made Leo from scrap wood and old pallets, and explains, “for me my sculptures can never compete with this stunning view but maybe can draw people out and experience it themselves.”

meditating troll in the mountains

Dambo’s 2021 exhibition, Guardians of the Seeds, is at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay, Maine. Follow @thomasdambo on Instagram.

Previously from Thomas Dambo : Six Forgotten Giants, Copenhagen’s hidden scrap wood sculptures. Also: The Future Forest: 3 tons of plastic waste transform a botanical garden in Mexico.

Bonus from Japan: Making a rice straw animal sculpture, a time-lapse for the Wara Art Festival.

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