We, too, noticed the absence of the sculptures on a trip awhile back, and your question finally prompted us to get to the bottom of the mystery of their disappearance. First, however, some background.
We contacted David Phelps, the internationally renowned sculpter who created the five concrete pieces, collectively named "Desert Wildlife", to see if he knew where they'd been moved to. He didn't, but he did give us some interesting insights into how the project came about:
In 1992, David saw a Request for Qualifications listed in a professional magazine (ArtWeek?) by the manager of the Clark County Library, looking for artists to submit ideas for the $900,000-worth of funds they'd allocated for public art works (click the link below for a pdf file of the original, which David kindly sent us). He sent slides & a resume in response to that RFQ in October of 1992 -- and heard nothing. Nothing, that is, until over two years later.
"In February of '95, I got a phone call from someone in Las Vegas, saying that they wanted me to propose a sculptural installation for the not-yet-complete Gate D Terminal of the airport. Since 2 1/2 years had passed, I had completely forgotten about that RFQ, so had no idea where this came from. They said they liked my work and wanted a proposal.
"My first proposal was of a series of human figures appearing to swim through the airport. They didn't like that idea but still wanted something from me. In a collaboration with the Art Committee for the project, we slowly arrived at five giant desert animals that all live in the environment surrounding Las Vegas (horny toad, Mojave rattlesnake, Black-tailed jackrabbit, scorpion, and desert tortoise.)
"I was awarded the commission and installed the sculptures in two trips. You can see that I responded to the original RFQ in '92 and final installation was in October of '99. My first installation of three animals was sometime around June or July of 1998. It was on that trip that I met Denise Shapiro [the author of the original RFQ] for the first time and in conversation, for the first time, realized that this commission came from that forgotten RFQ back in '92; six years prior."
To our knowledge, since their installation at least four of the sculptures have always resided in the rotunda at the bottom of the escalator leading up to the D Gates. We don't ever recall having seen the jackrabbit, although we know where it's located now (more of that to come). Then, sometime last year, we flew out of one of the D Gates and noticed the sculptures were gone. On our return flight, we came across one of them (the Hornytoad, we think) upstairs, but no sign of the others. So, we put in a call to McCarran and spoke with a very helpful gentleman who confirmed that they'd been moved around but wasn't quite sure where to. So, he rode the shuttle out the D Gates and went investigating on our behalf, for which we're most grateful. Here's what he reported back:
Click here to view a slideshow of the five creatures in the Desert Wildlife installation.
These aren't the only art exhibits on display at McCarran. To quote from the website, "To quench the cultural thirst of Las Vegas, McCarran features a variety of art. Permanent displays include glass and concrete sculptures, murals, children's art, and paintings depicting a variety of subject matter." Much of this is at the D Gates, where you'll also find works by Greg LeFevre, Tony Milici, Tom Holder, Mary Warner, Robert Beckmann, Harold Bradford, and a bunch of Clark County fourth graders.
We'd like to extend our thanks to David Phelps for giving us the backstory on this one; here's another link to his site, where you'll find some really interesting and fun pieces that we'd LOVE to give a home to.
