Jim McMahon/Mapman®
In the dark of night, a group of mischievous trolls sneaks into a museum in Denmark. They drag heaps of garbage in with them—including discarded T-shirts, broken blenders, and beat-up bikes. Then they piece the scraps together into a giant person.
That might sound like a scene out of a movie, but it’s actually the dreamed-up story behind a new art exhibit called The Garbage Man. Created by Danish artist Thomas Dambo, the unique exhibit features eight wooden trolls, their supersized creation, and piles of leftover trash. The work is on display at the Arken Museum of Contemporary Art outside Copenhagen through this fall.
Dambo says his goal is to draw attention to all the garbage people throw away on a daily basis and to encourage them to reuse what they can. He’s been sharing that message through his artwork for more than a decade.