Photographer Ana de Orbegoso is scheduled to give a talk on Feb. 15 at the Gorman Museum, where her exhibit The Invisible Wall is on display.

The artist's talk is set to begin at 5 p.m., and is free and open to the public. The Gorman is in 1316 Hart Hall.

The Invisible Wall made its North Ameri-can debut when it opened last month at the Gorman; the closing date is March 18.

De Orbegoso describes the exhibit as "a photographic confrontation where barriers become inseparable from the essence of human beings."

In a statement, she said people erect walls for a variety of reasons: protection from the elements; privacy; security from predators, human and otherwise; and as a means of keeping out the less desirable elements of society.

"The walls created for these purposes are sometimes made of bricks and cement," de Orbegoso said. "Sometimes these walls are made of attitudes and disguises and are invisible to the naked eye."

The exhibit is about the walls "that separate us both from each other and from different aspects within ourselves," she said. "Walls of our own making that are so personal, so essential, that they become integral and inseparable parts of us. Behind our individual walls we each keep hidden our prejudices, our preconceptions, our highest aspirations.

"Our individual walls serve to protect us by enabling us to always hold something back, and edge between what is hidden and what is revealed."

De Orbegoso said she photographed a diverse group of people, all in her native Lima, Peru, and used each subject's "translucent hands to represent their individual, barely perceptible barrier."