A series of monograph prints provide layers of allusion and outlined images in the show “Grafting Ammunition” by artist Jillian Sokso at the Painted Bride Art Center. The work, created along with Kevin Shook in 2013, is presented by InLiquid in the Café Gallery as an examination of how opposing viewpoints are constructed in society.

Jillian Sokso, “to the point.”

Sokso’s works utilize relief printing and serigraphy, bestowing the relatively basic forms with a surprising degree of depth. With translucent sheets covering deeper, darker images, there is a tumult of both perceived and actual layering going on in just about every one of these pieces.

Most of the small (less than two-foot) frames are full of wide swaths of color in rounded, abstract shapes paired with white fields. While these sections provide grounding and background, other more concrete forms emerge on top of them. While these images are surely lifted from the real world, they are unidentifiable here. It’s as if, as disagreements often go, we cannot bring ourselves to fully realize the opposite point of view. Without background knowledge or rational explanation, we find ourselves drawing conclusions without context.

Jillian Sokso, “the hold” and “keep it on the up.”

When content does peek through, it takes the form of plants, animals, and perhaps most often, guns. So often while we have our sights set on something we want, bias clouds our judgment, and in the absence of empathy, arguments are inevitable. Territorial disputes, acquisition of natural resources, religious or ideological differences: all of these provide the fuel for the disputes that we see about both in the news and in our personal lives every day.

By splaying these issues out on thin paper with color fields and illustrated rifles, it becomes easy to distance ourselves from the dilemmas around us. Sokso provides a reductive, reflective version of very real problems with our world, however the real focus here is on the psychology of the philosophical divides and the way that humans tend to break themselves into sides via an ‘us and them’ mentality.

Jillian Sokso, “steep the fall” and “not below us.”

Through the textured strata of lines and chunks of pigment, we are able to see opposing viewpoints from a distance. Instead of continuing to forge arms and construct controversy, “Grafting Ammunition” allows us to take a step back and think about why we were ever feuding in the first place. The exhibit will be on display at the Painted Bride Art Center through April 20.

Painted Bride Art Center is located at 230 Vine St., Philadelphia; [email protected]; paintedbride.org.