Trolls take shape at Ninigret Park for new recycled art project

CHARLESTOWN — Hidden in the woods of Ninigret Park, a small group under the direction of artist Thomas Dambo is putting in a lot of hours getting ready for the Charlestown park’s two newest residents.

The recycle artist, who’s gained notoriety worldwide for his troll installations, was at the park Tuesday to show off the trolls that will grace the park starting in May.

At a site close to the park’s recreation fields and not far from the Frosty Drew Observatory, music from a radio mixes with the sound of saws cutting wood as the workers continue on their mission to bring the troll to life.

The installation is a collaboration between Dambo and the South County Tourism Council, as well as the town of Charlestown. It’s been in the works for more than a year.

Now, a team of builders mold recycled material, mostly wood planks and scraps, into Dambo’s vision for the exhibit.

It’s been an 11-year journey for Dambo, who last year released a book when he completed his 100th troll installation.

“I’m making more all the time in projects around the world,” the artist said nearby at the park’s recreation pavilion. He recently finished an installation in Austin and has more planned in Alabama, Denmark and France. He’s orchestrating a traveling exhibition and a tie-in for Burning Man next year.

“I just set myself the goal of making one in each state,” he said. “I think it’s within reason and will be cool.”

He anticipates ultimately putting up six or seven sculptures in Rhode Island.

Last year, his wife, Alexa, and twin boys visited Ninigret Park to get a sense of an ideal location for the trolls. He noticed parts of the park had groupings of large stones.

“I really like big stones,” he said. “It feels good in a fairy tale, and logical, that the trolls would use big stones.”

Trolls and stones feature prominently in the myths and legends of his home country of Denmark, and he wanted to incorporate that into Charlestown’s project, "The Thunder Stone."

“Trolls believe that the Thunder Stone sits on the peak of the highest mountain,” he said. Over time the mountain crumbles and the stone becomes lost. The objective of the experience here, he said, “is to find the secret, hidden Thunder Stone.”

That involves visiting other trolls and gathering various clues to get there, a process that he said might take “two or three weekends” to fully investigate at different locales in Rhode Island.

“Maybe they’ll be some in Arcadia, maybe they’ll be some on an island, maybe some around Providence,” he said. Nothing’s been finalized, he said, but “we’re talking to a lot of different potential places where they can be.”

Along with the actual sculptures will be the stones, each with a clue to the mysterious Thunder Stone’s whereabouts.

Ninigret Park, he said, is a great fit, because the former naval air station is not only a beautiful natural area, but also one that has been tampered with.

“We’re actually standing on top of an airstrip right now,” he said. “It’s not untouched nature, but it’s a beautiful, cool experience to get here and go around.”

Dambo has pieces of art in more than 20 countries on five continents, including China, Brazil, Australia, Great Britain, Germany, France, South Korea and Chile.

Of the 130 Dambo trolls in the world, 44 of them are in the United States.

Dambo compared his work to a “recycling school,” in a way.

“I preach it and I practice it, and I bring people in to help with it,” he said. “All of that is focused on recycling.”

In making his first 100 trolls, Dambo used 14,000 pallets, 250 tons of scrap wood and 1,500 volunteers, and to date about 2 million screws, Alexa, said.

All of the activity has garnered Dambo and his work quite a bit of attention.

“There are people who travel around and visit each of the sculptures,” he said. There’s a Facebook fan group of some 100,000 members.

“It’s just taken on its own life,” he said.

Last year, the team’s “Way of the Bird King” road trip, in an old mobile home dubbed the “Troller Coaster,” saw 10 sculptures introduced from New England to Seattle.

Dambo trolls have been featured on National Geographic, “CBS Sunday Morning,” NPR’s “Morning Edition” and more.

“I feel really privileged to get to do all these projects in the United States and get to go so many places,” he said. “What I like about the U.S. is there’s so much nature and so much is untouched compared to Denmark.”

He has a core group of 25 people who work at his studio, on a farm in his native Denmark, outside Copenhagen. There, he stores “mountains” of pallets and other materials he finds or collects.

Dambo crafts the head of each troll in his home studio, then it’s shipped to the display location.

In Charlestown, a team of nine people, including five from Denmark, is split between the two trolls. The bodies of each troll come from locally-sourced recyclable material — such as wooden planks from a 150-year-old barn.

Dambo said he has picked out names for his two Charlestown trolls — just two days ago — but he won’t release the names just yet. He’s saving that for the ribbon-cutting event, which is coming up next month.

Tuesday’s tour of the troll sites at Ninigret was the first publicity push for the Rhode Island exhibit. Later in the day, the South County Tourism Council unveiled its 2024 marketing campaign during an event at the United Theatre. On April 30, Dambo will be at the United at 7 p.m. to give an artist talk about his work.