EDUARDO MUTUC, BORN IN 1949
WHO IS EDUARDO MUTUC?
Eduardo Mutuc is a metalsmith from the Philippines who creates sacred and secular art out of bronze, silver, and wood.
He was 29 when he decided to supplement his income from farming for the relatively more secure job of woodcarving. For him, the most difficult difficulty was learning a profession about which he had no prior expertise, yet poverty was a great motivator. After a colleague taught him the craft of silver plating
during his fifth or sixth year as a furniture manufacturer, things began to change.
Monsignor Fidelis Limcauco, one of his first clients as an independent craftsman, commissioned him to build a tabernacle for a parish church in Fairview, Quezon City. Mutuc went on to produce more religious works, many of which are based on Spanish colonial styles but contain his own ideas. He also created secular works, though these, too, were influenced by religious influences.
In 2004, he received the National Living Treasures Award.
WORK
The treasure stored within the walls of tatang Eddie's residence-turned-workshop is not immediately apparent upon first inspection. Even the Mutuc family's neighbours in Tabuyuc, Apalit, Pampanga are unaware of the illustrious elder whose life's work is dedicated to the traditional art of "pinukpuk," or metal craft, because of the process of embossing motifs on metal sheets that are usually utilised as ornamentation in religious objects He became an expert at copying existing patterns at first, but as time went on, he got increasingly skilled at introducing his own ideas. The so-called "callado", which has entwined foliage and flowers engraved on silver-plated yellow brass, is one of his current favourites.