Giant trolls take over Dix Park

An internationally-acclaimed artist has brought his message of sustainability to Dix Park in Raleigh. 

Thomas Dambo has built more than 170 trolls from recycled materials across five continents, including in countries like Denmark, China, France and South Korea.

For the past three weeks, Dambo and 500 volunteers have been building a family of trolls out of old bourbon barrels. 

"The message of my art is that we can, instead of be drowning in our own trash," Dambo said. "We can take all that trash, and then we can use it to create big and beautiful things."

Construction on the trolls is finishing up in time for this weekend's unveiling to the public. Visitors can catch a glimpse of the baby troll just outside of the the woods near the flower field. A long wooded "tail" that is about 700-feet long was constructed to connect the baby troll to its mother, who is sleeping in the middle of the woods. 

In fact, Dambo's interactive Trollmap encourages people to be explorers and find the trolls themselves.

"The joy is in the discovery,” Dambo said. “The trolls are shy creatures. They like to be found, not announced.”

Dambo said he was inspired to create trolls because the mythical creatures are popular in Denmark with many stories about them. 

"There was a cassette tape of a little troll girl that was protecting the forest. I always borrowed it from the public library library when I was a kid," Dambo said. 

While working at a factory making birdhouses, Dambo saw a mountain of trash outside in the back.

"I thought, like, it could be pretty cool if I could take this mountain of trash, scrap wood from pallets and cargo books and stuff, and then turn it into an army of trolls, and then put that army of trolls in the forest where this mountain of scrap wood came from," he said.

Pop-up trolls exhibit in western NC

While the trolls at Dix Park will be permanent installations, visitors to North Carolina's mountains can see more of Dambo's work between Nov. 15, 2025, and Feb. 17, 2026, at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville. The traveling, pop-up exhibit features twelve interactive troll sculptures.

Two permanent trolls will also be installed in High Point and Charlotte this fall. Dambo will be traveling with volunteers to start those projects once the Dix Park project is complete.