Thomas Dambo's Giants speak on magic and environmental harmony

"They really enjoy it here, I think they've actually been here the whole time but they've just recently popped up.

"They definitely like it here, and as the official spokesperson for the trolls," the 43-year-old said, pointing at himself, "I really like to be here and build here, because everything looks so different to back home in Denmark."

The official opening of Mr Dambo's trolls - colossal installations that have been dotted throughout the world by the artist and climate activist - takes place this Saturday, with state-wide excitement and unusual creatures already being spotted, and shared on social media.

The 12-month long exhibition not only brings magic into Mandurah, but aims to educate about the environment, with six trolls hiding in all sorts of places around town.

"I always wanted to have my trolls sit in the Australian bush, because I like to see them in a place that looks magical," the artist said.

"The nature is super intriguing to me, everything looks like it's out of an alien movie, a lot of the plants and such."

In pre-Christian Denmark, trolls comprised much of the folklore, providing reason for the movements of nature which were otherwise unexplained.

Today, story-telling of this fantastical nature is still woven through Danish culture, colouring Mr Dambo's childhood, and even adult life, through songs, stories and movies.

An avid fan of fairytales and epic adventures, Mr Dambo's youthful spirit has never faltered from the early days where he would rent out cassette tapes from the local library.

The child-like spirit in an adult is often squandered by devastating realism, practicality and logic.

Mr Dambo said this spirit is simply a part of his day to day life.

"I just like to see the world in that way, to play these games.

"It's the classic thing of train and maintain. I just do it so much, that it's a normal way of behaving."

Like many Danish families, Mr Dambo's parents taught him from a young age to 'leave the world better than you found it'.

With sustainability taught in school, Mr Dambo's environmental philosophy was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Taking care of the world was a natural thing," he said.

"Coming from Denmark, I think we were some of the first movers in the world in being sustainable.

"Our government understood 20 years ago that we needed to be the first movers in it, because it was going to be the new norm, so why not just start doing it right now?"

When creating his art, Mr Dambo said it was important that the medium could also be used to convey meaning, and so, all of the materials used on the giants are recycled.

"I go right to the source of where they would be and take it from there."

The materials used for the Mandurah giants are largely created out of around 700 wooden pallets, from a local brewery.

Other materials, like sticks and rocks, are foraged for also, with help from local school students from Fairbridge College and Glencoe Primary School.

In his next project in Singapore, which focuses on plastic, Mr Dambo said they would ride around Singapore on bikes, looking through bins for plastic to salvage.

Mr Dambo said he wants people to consider rubbish in a more positive light.

His sculptures are a way of 'rebranding' rubbish, away from the common perspective that it's 'dirty, worthless and evil'.

"When we associate our trash with that, then we will drive it all to landfill," he said.

"Resources are scarce, the world is limited, so if you don't recycle, one day there will be nothing more."

Mandurah's giants follow a story dreamed up by Mr Dambo, a poem titled 'Rhythm of the Raindrops', which brings his total number of giants created worldwide, to 99.

It follows the cycle of water, with six giants in charge of each part of the cycle.

Unfortunately, one of the giants has gone missing, and now the cycle of water, and therefore the entire ecosystem, has been disrupted.

Community members are being encouraged to assist in the search program, by meeting with the five other giants for special information which can be found on a pendant around their neck.

This information can be transposed just outside the Mandurah Visitor Centre, where the location of the sixth giant will be revealed.

It is hoped by Mr Dambo and his team that the community will be able to convince the sixth giant to rejoin the water cycle.

In order to keep the magic of the trolls intact, the location of the missing giant is to remain a secret.

Mr Dambo said bringing characters from stories into the real world adds value to the story.

"It's not just the sculpture, it's the landscape with the sculpture, which creates the whole scene."

The locations for the giants were scouted before the giants were designed in depth.

Occasionally a concept drawing will fill the absence of a blueprint, with Mr Dambo saying he creates the sculptures from his mind.

"I've made so many now, I just know how to do it," he said.

"I will be sitting on the floor with my wife being like 'what would a troll look like if it was pretending to be a bird?' or 'what would it look like if it was pretending to be drunk?',

"Or what if it looked like this?" Mr Dambo said, using his body to demonstrate.

The poses adopted by the slow-moving creatures are all about subtlety.

"The sculptures don't need to be doing too much, when it's too dramatic and over-explains, it makes it a bit more boring and less alive," he said.

"There's so much magic here already, so much story about what has happened."

The heads were crafted back in Denmark, but the rest of the giants were assembled at the sites, with local materials.

The giants named Vivi Cirkelstone, Seba's song, Little Lui, Santi Ikto, Bille Bob and Jyttes Hytte, are all named with inspiration after people Mr Dambo knows.

This dedication is saved for people who have helped with the creative process in some way.

"A kid in Denmark who was a super-fan of my trolls, he really wanted me to name a troll after him," Mr Dambo said.

"And I was like 'but then you have to help me build a troll!', so I make a pact with him that he has to hand me 100 sticks when I'm screwing on the hair.

"He got so impatient, he got to about 60 and I said we've got 40 more to do, we'll come back another day," he said, laughing.