Cauda Equina Analysis

Riva Lehrer is an artist who was born with a neural tube defect known as spina bifida. Spina bifida results when the bones of the spine do not form properly around part of a baby’s spinal cord (WebMD.com). As a result, Lehrer grew up being labeled as a “freak, retard, or cripple” (mankatotimes.com). She addresses these experiences by focusing her narrative portraits on issues of physical identity and the socially challenged body” (rivalehrerart.com). In doing so, she redefines the idea of beauty, importance, and visual pleasure (rivalehrerat.com). Lehrer’s self-portrait titled “Cauda Equina,” literally meaning “the horse’s tail,” speaks to the theme of identity and disability. The choice of “Cauda Equina” as a title, and the positioning, and anatomical illustration of the woman and the skeletal horse, collectively work together to help Lehrer reclaim and re-define her identity as a human being of unlimited creativity, and intellectual ability; A human being whose abilities should not be defined by a physical anomaly.
By naming the painting “Cauda Equina,” Lehrer leaves her audience unaware of the actual content and meaning of the visual. One could predict the painting to be that of a horse’s tail or a bundle of spinal nerves. However, her visual showcases a nude woman facing backward …show more content…
This platform allows her to take the plagued lens of a society that has defined her by her disability, and provide it with a new lens; A lens from the eyes of an individual with a physical disability, and NOT an individual of a physical disability. In doing so, Lehrer reclaims and re-defines her identity as a human being of unlimited creativity, and intellectual ability; A human being whose abilities should not and cannot be defined by a physical