‘Am I Okay?’ is a community-driven mental health art exhibition by Miri-based volunteers that uses creativity, storytelling, and interactive experiences to help visitors explore emotions, spark conversations, and promote understanding across generations.
Young artists spark national conversation on mental health through art
IN a world where “I’m fine” often masks quiet struggles, ‘Am I Okay?’ dares to ask the question out loud.
While walking through GMBB, the artists’ hub in Kuala Lumpur, I came across this community-driven mental health art exhibition by So Extra Market. It was different from the other art exhibitions there, as this one explores emotional wellbeing through creativity, storytelling, and shared human experience.
The young man attending to my inquisitive mood was patient enough to explain the objectives and purpose of the exhibition. He and the rest of his team members are from Miri, the city in my home state of Sarawak.
These Mirians, helmed by Tommy Ling, are all volunteers doing something good for society, bringing a whole new perspective to delivering the message about mental health in a lighter expression of mental issues faced by many.
Designed as an immersive emotional journey, the exhibition invites visitors to reflect on the gap between how we appear and how we truly feel. Moving through visual art, installations, performances, and interactive experiences, audiences are guided from everyday struggles and self-doubt to disconnection and healing. It is a reminder that mental health exists on a continuum, not in isolation.
Complemented by on-site therapy sessions, information booths, and collaborations with mental health associations, ‘Am I Okay?’ bridges art, education, and advocacy to nurture empathy, understanding, and care.
Following its heartfelt debut in Miri, the exhibition returns for its second edition in Kuala Lumpur after overwhelming requests to bring it to the capital. More than 150 submissions were received from artists across Malaysia, with 50 works selected, including pieces by the founders themselves.
The project began as a small passion initiative under So Extra Market, an art, cultural, and aesthetic lifestyle platform founded in 2023 by Tommy Ling, Emily Chan, Vicky Ling, and Cindy Ngui. It started when an expo organiser asked if they could host an exhibition on health or mental health.
Surprisingly, it is a self-funded exhibition, where these young people sell entry tickets for admission.
“We realised that art is one of the most genuine ways to express emotions,” Tommy explained, adding that many people around them are struggling with mental health but do not know how to talk about it.
Traditional awareness campaigns, such as pamphlets or talks, rarely created real understanding.
So, they decided to turn empathy into experience. Bringing the exhibition to Kuala Lumpur allows them to reach a wider audience and to show that a project born in Sarawak can thrive in a major city.
“The encouragement from West Malaysian visitors inspired us to bring this here,” they said. “We want to show that conversations about mental health belong everywhere.”
The idea for ‘Am I Okay?’ emerged from a realisation that behind every “I’m fine” lies a deeper story. During early So Extra events, artists often expressed their inner worlds through painting, performance and design, ultimately creating raw, honest reflections of their emotional lives.
We saw different forms of art expression, which, to some of us, are a concern when you read notes written by some indicating suicide.
Those moments of vulnerability inspired the founders to create a safe, creative space for others to confront their inner realities without fear or shame. From that need, ‘Am I Okay?’ grew into a movement that transforms silence into shared understanding and turns individual vulnerability into collective strength.
The exhibition explores mental health through three key approaches:
- ‘Expression as Healing’ by providing artists and participants with a creative outlet to process and share experiences.
- ‘Conversation as Connection’ by encouraging dialogue through interactive installations, performances, and a ‘Community Wall’.
- ‘Support as Action’ by partnering with mental health professionals to offer counselling, educational booths, and accessible resources.
Visitors become part of a living dialogue about empathy, resilience and healing, taking away not just something to see, but something to feel.
A shared emotional experience
One of the exhibition’s most meaningful outcomes has been the diversity of its visitors. While many attendees are young people, many also bring their parents or elders, hoping to bridge emotional gaps.
“We’ve seen parents tell us they finally understand what their children have been trying to say,” the organisers share.
The exhibition resonates across generations because it reflects the universal human experience of confusion, heaviness, and hope we all carry. It is not limited to depression or anxiety but embraces the full spectrum of emotional challenges.
From October 30 till November 9, ‘Am I Okay?’ drew crowds daily. It quickly went viral on social media platforms like Instagram and Rednote, and tickets sold out within days. Mental health professionals, such as psychologists, therapists and doctors, have praised it as “innovative, empathetic, and deeply human”.
Visitors describe the exhibition as emotionally authentic and beautifully curated, with each installation revealing the team’s care and intention.
“It’s rare to see art and mental health so seamlessly intertwined,” one visitor remarked. “You don’t just observe. You feel part of something larger.”
Since 2023, So Extra Market has grown into one of Miri’s most vibrant youth-led cultural movements, hosting five to six major events yearly with up to 60 vendors and 40,000 visitors.
Around 40 per cent of vendors and 90 per cent of performers are youth, many debuting publicly for the first time.
Beyond events, So Extra empowers young creatives through leadership, entrepreneurship, and community-driven art – all fuelled by volunteer passion over profit.
