Fans of 2016 pop-culture phenomenon Strangers Things can enter The Upside Down this month, no flotation tank necessary. More than 50 local and international artists, illustrators and craftspeople will exhibit works inspired by the Netflix series at a new show presented by Espionage Gallery and Splash Adelaide. Curator and artist Joshua Smith was inspired after binge-watching the show over two nights. “After I finished the series I woke up at 5am and thought, ‘I need to make this an exhibition’,” he says.

“[The show] lends itself so well to fan art, and when I started doing research on artists who have been inspired by it I realised this is something that resonates with a lot of people. There are a lot of [visual] elements of the show that are pure gold.” The immersive exhibition will transform the basement level of the Darling Building into an otherworldly setting. “I wanted it to be an experience and the first port of call was to find an appropriate venue,” Smith says. “Initially I came across an old, abandoned laboratory in the city, in the WOTSO space, but it just went on the market through Renew Adelaide, so everybody wanted it. But I recently went to a SALA exhibition in the Darling Building and it was all dingy and haunted-house-esque, and I thought, ‘This is perfect’.