Witty Comfort from the Cats of Dolkori Forest_Featuring Artist Yoon So-ra 2026-09-08

Located at 1878 Jungsangan-seoro, Andeok-myeon, Seogwipo-si, Jeju Island, Dolkori Forest is a lifestyle content park where visitors can enjoy exhibitions, garden walks, and art appreciation. Using Jeju's natural scenery and cats as a medium for comfort and rest, it offers modern people a sense of emotional peace. In the outdoor garden "Dolkori Garden," visitors can encounter a variety of cat sculptures interpreted through the unique personalities and perspectives of artists from Korea and abroad. [Editor's note]

What kind of comfort emerges when Jeju's nature meets cats? Artist Yoon So-ra, who has long been creating small wooden cat sculptures, has now unveiled large-scale cat sculptures at Dolkori Forest. These are cats we encounter in everyday life—stretching, exercising, or sprawled out flat on their backs. We spoke with Yoon So-ra about the story behind these "cats that offer comfort."

Hello, could you introduce yourself?

Hello. I'm Yoon So-ra, an artist who carves cats out of wood. I run a woodcarving studio called Studio & Cat in Hoengseong, Gangwon Province.

What was your first thought when you were commissioned to create cat-related artwork for Dolkori Forest in Jeju?

My first thought was, "Jeju is finally getting a cat theme park." As someone who loves cats, I had been hoping for a cat theme park, so hearing the news about Dolkori Forest got me excited. Just thinking that I had the chance to exhibit my cat artwork at Dolkori Forest made me thrilled (laughs).

When I went on a site visit to Jeju, I found myself thinking about the artwork even while eating or driving. I thought about questions like, "What do the cats living in Dolkori Forest play around doing? What kind of life do they lead?" and developed the pieces from there.

Could you tell us about "The Cat's Dream," the piece installed on the rooftop of the Dolkori Forest building?

This piece started from imagining, "What would a cat look like up on a building's rooftop?" I imagined many scenarios—the cat showing that indifferent, aloof personality cats are known for, not caring about people, or the cat waving a greeting toward Dolkori Forest visitors as if to say "Welcome, glad you're here." In the end, I portrayed a cat full of dreams gazing up at the sky, flying a paper airplane with an expression that says "Someday I'll fly through the sky." Since this is the first piece visitors to Dolkori Forest encounter, I paid extra attention to it (laughs).

Your work stands out for the warm texture of "wood," a nature-friendly material. Considering Jeju's wind and sunlight, was there anything you paid special attention to or took extra care with when displaying sculptures outdoors?

I've always worked with wood as the material for my cat pieces. At first, I intended to use wood for the Dolkori Forest cat pieces as well. However, Jeju has strong winds and frequent rain, making it a harsh environment for wooden sculptures to withstand. Wood is vulnerable to moisture, and repeated contraction and expansion with temperature changes can cause cracking or damage. So the cat pieces displayed at Dolkori Forest were made using FRP (Fiber Reinforced Plastic), a material that replicates the texture of wood exactly. I wanted the cats to live at Dolkori Forest for a long, long time (laughs).

You've been making small wooden cat pieces all along, but this time you unveiled a large-scale sculpture. I'm curious why you decided to present such a big cat.

A representative from Smilegate explained to me that Dolkori Forest is designed around the concept of a forest where cats live and people come to observe them. I thought that to properly observe the cats in the forest, they'd first need to be large in size. Personally, I think the bigger a cat is, the cuter it gets (laughs). I worked on this while enjoying the thought of just how cute a cat would be if it were as big as a house. Making a large-scale sculpture had always been a dream of mine as an artist, and having that come true this time made it a personally meaningful project as well.

Your titles—like "I Don't Want to Do Anything" and "My Right Side Is My Better Side"—are full of wit. I'm curious about the background behind naming your pieces this way.

I love humor. I believe humor can enrich life. I named the pieces hoping people would look at my work, let out a little laugh, and feel a sense of fun.

Sometimes when browsing social media, the post itself is funny, but the tags attached to it turn out to be even funnier. I made my pieces hoping they could create that same kind of moment. When naming a piece, I think borrowing a familiar phrase or a widely used expression helps create a sense of connection with people.

Is there a particularly memorable episode from making these pieces that you could share?

Most of the cat sculptures I made were produced in FRP, but there's one exception made of balloon material—a cat sculpture lying down using Cheongwadae (the Blue House) as a pillow.

Balloon sculptures are tricky to inflate and keep maintained. But the finished result can bring a lot of visual delight. At first, watching this huge, limp, deflated piece of fabric slowly fill with air and grow bigger and bigger felt just like a scene from a movie. Watching it happen, my jaw just dropped in amazement (laughs).

Since Jeju gets a lot of wind, I had this silly worry that the piece might blow away, but there's such a huge amount of sand packed inside the balloon cat's belly that I didn't actually need to worry.

The core experience of Dolkori Forest is "the comfort and lingering presence of cats." How did you try to express this in your work?

I believe comfort comes from empathy. And empathy can arise from familiar, everyday situations—like talking with a friend, or warmly embracing one another. With these cat pieces for Dolkori Forest, I also tried to capture everyday scenes that people can relate to—a cat exercising, a cat flying a paper airplane, and so on. I hope people can naturally feel a sense of comfort just from looking at them.

Your cats are woven throughout Dolkori Forest's expansive outdoor spaces as if they were part of nature itself. Could you share a viewing tip—what perspective should visitors take when looking at these pieces to fully experience the fun and emotion you intended?

The cats at Dolkori Forest were made with personified traits. Each cat has its own distinct personality and behavior. For example, the piece "Holding My Breath and Stretching" shows a cat reaching its arms out doing yoga, expressing a moment of setting worries aside and feeling relaxed and at ease. The piece "The Cat Who Dreams of Scissor Hands" is set up as a cat that loves plants, shown cradling an armful of plants to be planted in the garden. I hope people can feel a moment of emotional connection while looking at these various cats.

How would you describe Dolkori Forest in one sentence?

It's a captivating place—once you step in, you can't leave. How could anyone walk away from cats this adorable? I certainly can't. (laughs)