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Stroebel’s interest in embroidery has been passed down through generations of his family. There is an incredible dexterity and painterly application of the medium: that more than anything made me wonder 'how on earth did he do that?' The works become almost curiosities – something to be dug up in the Ripley’s Believe it or Not archives in a hundred years' time. Perhaps I sound less than critical, but I am truly astounded by the capacity of a man to create such an enormous body of work in such a relatively short space of time.

There is something a bit uncomfortable about the show, almost as if you were caught covertly digging through a friend’s underwear drawer. For such a private man, who says self-deprecatingly that friends never believed him that he was working so hard because he never showed them anything, the exhibition reads as a revealing of his cherished and deeply intimate world. It is perhaps because of this intensely personal take on the subject matter that Stroebel sidesteps the possibility of exoticisation or objectification in his exploration of antiquity.

Perhaps one of my favourite pieces is Custodians – a work that took over 10 years to complete. Stroebel sent one of his favourite shirts on its own ‘travels’ where he asked friends and colleagues to embroider an animal of their choice, creating his own Garden of Earthly Delights. Panda bears stroll past cockerels, a rabbit leaps over a whale – the work is incredibly layered, and in a sense tragic. The ‘child-like’ embroidered animals, of which we are ‘custodians’ reads as a catalogue of better times. And perhaps this is the recurrent theme within his work – a sincere sense of sociability, warmth and interactivity.

When I asked Stroebel what his plans after 16 years of meticulous work was up and revealed, he replied simply 'it’s time to go on another journey'.

‘Recollect’ is truly an incredible show – go and check it out.