I’m looking at what appears to be a photograph, of what appears to be a view outside of a window, taken from inside what appears to be a room. Yet there is something not quite ‘right’ about the photograph. The space is clearly impossible, yet it is impossible to pinpoint why (I’m reminded of Escher’s ‘Ascending and Descending’). Art is always a fiction of sorts, and this is an exhibition entitled ‘Magic Show’, so I should be expecting the visual sleight of hand. And yet I find my mind insisting on attempting to make sense of the space Sinta Werner has portrayed in front of me, refusing to accept its unreality. It is the trick of the conjuror, as played by an artist.

Parallels between magician and artist are highlighted throughout ‘Magic Show’, a Hayward Touring exhibition, currently showing at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff. It is an impressively diverse exhbition, mixing actual magicians’ props and paraphenalia with artworks in many different media. Some work directly references the world of the illusionist, such as Juan Munoz’s photographs of the fingertip mirrors used by card sharks, whilst other work’s relationship to the theme is one more of technique and intent – such as Sinta Werner’s exquisitely perplexing space collages.

Sometimes the technique is intentionally exposed, such as in a series of films by Joao Maria Gusmao and Pedro Paiva, in which inanimate objects become animate – a rope becomes a snake, writhing viciously before two men, who cut it down with swords; boulders in a desert rumble slowly into life, rolling their way toward a shared destination. In all these films, no attempt is made to hide the artifice of the situation – the strings are quite literally visible. This honesty allows the viewer to engage with the work as a spectator, not an interrogator, and enjoy the touching, quaint absurdity of the actions unfolding before them.

The highlight for many will be Zoe Beloff’s “A Modern Case of Posession” – a film of a play about French psychologist Dr Pierre Janet. The play performed is interesting enough, but it is the way that it is presented that impresses the most. The film of the play is projected onto a small theatrical stage set. The film is shot in 3D, and with the aid of 3D glasses the viewer is treated to a wonderful experience, in which the miniature actors appear real enough to pick up off the stage and hold in the hand. The manipulation of scale and the viewer’s perceptions of it are both brilliant and playful.

‘Magic Show’ is an excellent exhibition, one which entertains, surprises, and occasionally perplexes – just like all good magic shows should.

‘Magic Show’ is on at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff until 12th September, after which it moves on to Pump House Gallery, London