Fraud or artistic oracle? Waste of time or groundbreaking conceptual artist? Love him or hate him, Sydney artist Jesse Willesee knows how to get a reaction. His show ’22 Girls Smoking Weed’ was shut down by a police squad, his website boasts a Jesse Willesee hate page and he’s inspired a graffiti bullying campaign. But he’s a star among the Tumblr and Instagram set and his FLASH/MOB events - live art and fashion installations where the audience become the photographers - attract big crowds. The aureview talks to Willesee about his latest show, Product Placement, and asks, is Jesse Willesee really an artist?

Last Thursday night saw Jesse Willesee’s latest project ‘PASSOUT: The art of getting fall down drunk.’ exhibited at Sydney’s The Backroom. The exhibition consisted of live installations; a collective of models as caricatures of the Kings Cross nightlife. These depictions were pretty damn accurate, in fact certain set-ups were so realistic albeit nauseating that it was difficult to distinguish the art from stock scenarios of a Saturday night in the Cross.