No, citizen, this isn’t one of those internet trolls that lurk all anonymously and like to stir up shit online. This is a real-world troll. This is a more traditional, definitely more affable, Scandinavian sort of troll – but much bigger. It’s the kind of creature that Danish artist Thomas Dambo has been constructing from recycled materials and installing across the globe for years.
Dambo, most often commissioned by community organizations with a budget and a sense of wonder, has completed more than 100 such fantastic sculptures in the past decade, and this latest one, to be unveiled March 15, will be squatting in Central Austin’s longtime gem of a park – the 43-acre Pease Park, which runs along the banks of Shoal Creek and Lamar Boulevard from West 15th Street to West 24th Street. You know: It’s where Eeyore’s Birthday Party is held each year, where joyous, body-painted celebrants run wild and many a drum circle forms as if by spontaneous generation.
Now, lest you think, Oh no, are living trees being slaughtered to bring us such a wooden wonderment?, please note where we said “recycled materials” above. This Dambo fellow’s all about the creative reuse of resources – in fact, such recycling, in addition to delighting the art-loving public, is his life’s mission. This Pease Park troll’s looming corpus is being conjured mostly from the boards of a decommissioned water tower on UT’s J.J. Pickle Research Campus, reclaimed and milled by the professional sawyers of Harvest Lumber. And “looming” is right: The finished troll will be approximately 18 feet tall by 15 feet wide, offering such an obvious photo opportunity that you might hear the wind whisper “Instagram” as you draw near.
Would you like to draw near? It’s a big troll, yes; but it’s an even bigger park. So, where in this mid-urban, 84-acre wilderness of trees and creek and trails will you find Dambo’s newest opus? The Pease Park Conservancy has helpfully revealed the troll’s precise location: “Once you arrive at Pease Park (1100 Kingsbury Street), head north on the trail through Kingsbury Commons. You will see an ‘Art In The Park’ sign on your left. Just past this sign, there will be a trail that leads through the wooded area up the hill. Nestled into the trees, you will find the Pease Park troll.”
It is free to visit, of course: You’re just walking in a public park, right? OK, but so who’s paying for this troll, this friendly cynosure that Dambo has granted Pease Park a 15-year exclusive license for? Informational boilerplate tells us that the artwork is fully funded and maintained by the nonprofit Pease Park Conservancy, that “public funds are not used to support the Conservancy and are not being used to support this project,” and that the San Antonio-based Tejemos Foundation is covering the costs associated with installation and maintenance of the troll. Yes, for 15 years.
Whoa, philanthropy and art? Sounds like what Austin is supposed to be about, after all, doesn’t it? And this time the combination has resulted in a destination park’s newest attraction, an enormous, wisely sourced, tree-surrounded wooden troll that’s sure to delight young and old, visitors and locals alike? Reckon that’s a definite win for those on the side of good living – trolls included.
Thomas Dambo Troll
Friday 15, Pease Park
peasepark.org
[Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the size of Pease Park. The park is 84 acres, not 43 acres as we originally stated. Thank you to Nicole Netherton, chief executive officer of Pease Park Conservancy, for pointing that out.]
This article appears in SXSW 2024 Festival Guide, Part II.