Mátyás Fusz’s latest works are the result of a process that leads from the plane of the painting, through mechanical processing, to three-dimensional forms. His starting point is a series of paintings in which the organic forms of the human body—while retaining its anatomical proportions—are disrupted by structural elements. The rounded surfaces of the shoulders, chest, pelvis, and limbs are segmented by planes and edges; where body parts meet, the junctions are reminiscent of the joints of an assembled structure. The resulting mechanomorphic bodies remain recognizably human, while their form is shaped by the very gesture that seeks to make the human body interpretable even to a machine, thereby reversing the usual direction of anthropomorphism.
During the process, the paintings serve as height maps for CNC machines and 3D printers: light and dark tones are converted into elevation values, with lighter surfaces indicating closer points and darker ones indicating more distant points, based on which reliefs are created. The same tonal values that define the figure’s appearance in the painting shape its spatial extension during machine processing.
In his artistic practice, Fusz repeatedly develops methods through which phenomena that seem self-evident yet are difficult to grasp directly become comprehensible and representable in a unique way. The rules he has established define the framework, yet they also leave room for his methods to continue evolving according to their own potential. *The Human Body, Machines* is ultimately a speculative experiment that questions the exclusivity of the human perspective and rethinks humanity in relation to other, non-human agents.