DETROIT LAKES — 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

Though Dambo has been involved in other projects involving recycled art, his trolls are probably his biggest claim to fame. 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. The book itself is made from recycled materials, Dambo noted.

Danish recycled materials artist Thomas Dambo, who stands roughly six and a half feet tall, is dwarfed by one of the 139-and-counting giant troll sculptures that he has installed at locations all over the globe over the past 10 years. (Contributed / Project 412)

Copies of that book will be available for sale at an artist talk with Dambo that will be hosted by the Historic Holmes Theatre in Detroit Lakes at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 21. 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.

Some of the wood came from white pine trees that were cut down to make room for the expansion of Minnesota 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, N.D.; Perham, Minn.; and Frazee, Minn., 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.

Work on constructing the trolls has been underway for about a week, Dambo said, and will continue through mid-June. Local nonprofit Project 412 is the organization responsible for bringing Dambo and his crew of 20-some 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 project412mn.org.

Those planning to attend Dambo’s artist talk at the Holmes Theatre on Tuesday are asked to RSVP via the Project 412 website at project412mn.org/thomas-dambo-artist-talk.

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