From trash to troll: New sculpture in Pease Park creates whimsy with recycled materials

A pair of big, wooden feet, with toes as big as a two toddlers, sat cattywampus off a Pease Park trail earlier this month, when temperatures were as cool as 52 degrees.

The feet are part of a troll art sculpture being installed in the coming weeks at Pease Park. Austin's troll is the 129th troll Danish artist Thomas Dambo has created in more than a dozen countries. Pease Park Conservancy is funding the troll via donations.

We caught up with Dambo earlier this month. Here's what we learned:

Trash is king for Dambo's trolls.

Dambo uses recycled materials and trash in his work. The Austin troll is made of old, wooden pallets and a decommissioned water tower from the J.J. Pickle Research Campus in North Austin. Dambo wore a bucket hat made from an old pair of jeans as he spoke about his use of trash, calling it a resource.

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"My art is not about trolls, it's about trash," Dambo said. "Instead of drowning in our own trash, we can build good things and a future out of trash."

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The Pease Park troll is Dambo's first troll in Texas.

Dambo was commissioned to bring one of his trolls to Pease Park after members of the Tejemos Foundation, which is helping fund the project, saw a troll in Maine in 2022. Dambo doesn't have any plans right now for another Texas troll, but he's leaving that door open since he likes Texas.

"I really like Mexican food and here you have like good Mexican food," he said.

His favorite Mexican food so far? Fajitas and margaritas.

Trolls come from Dambo's culture.

Dambo is from Denmark and he talked about how growing up, the folklore he heard and the lullabies his mother sang to him all had to do with trolls.

"It's my heritage, and so I use that as a the vehicle to talk about ... all these really heavy topics. I'm trying to talk about them in a more entertaining and funny way," Dambo said. "I write fairy tales and I write poems about all my different sculptures that you can read."

Austin's troll has a water theme due to its proximity to Lady Bird Lake and because of the stories Dambo's heard about people in Austin leaving water out for animals when summers get too hot and dry. The troll will be holding a large bowl to go with the water theme.

"I thought that it would be cool to make a sculpture that reminded us to share this world with the other species and share our water with them," Dambo said.

The troll will have a name, but it hasn't been revealed yet.

Dambo names all of his trolls, and the Austin troll's name will be announced on March 15 when the troll is revealed to the community.

The troll introduction will include a celebration from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Pease Park, 1100 Kingsbury St.

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